The Kings stared at their doppelganger in the Minnesota Wild. What they saw Thursday was a reasonable version of themselves that knows how to pull out close wins.
Not a lot separated two of the older teams in the NHL (the Kings and Wild have an average age of 29.3 and 29, respectively), but Minnesota won the special-teams battle, and much of the second period, in a 3-1 win at Staples Center.
This wasn’t an ordinary game. Nor was it a ho-hum early November match against an opponent that plays a similarly dull, defensive game.