Moments after Bryzgalov made a brilliant save on Kopitar, the Kings scored a power-play goal. Kopitar took the shot and Bryzgalov made the stop but lost track of the rebound. It ended up behind his skate and Rob Blake, playing down low on the power play, knocked it into the net. They announced the goal as Cammalleri’s, but that will be changed.

Ducks are going back on the power play after another poor Kings penalty. Nine minutes left in the second period.

As I thought about the absence of Thornton and Willsie from the lineup, I remembered something that Crawford said during training camp about the fourth line. He talked about how they could use it differently depending on which team they’re playing. If they’re expecting a more physical game, they could go with one group, and a different group if they’re expected a more “skilled” game. So this could be something we see for a while.

Then again, there’s always the possibility of a trade. Lombardi has talked about it before, in general. His theory is that if a young player comes in and beats out a veteran, it gives him the opportunity to trade the veteran for a draft pick or another young player. I’m not saying that will happen with Thornton and/or Willsie, but it’s never out of the question.

Kings 1, Ducks 0

Other than a couple unwise penalties, there wasn’t much to criticize about the Kings’ game in that period.

A great first period for Bernier, who had to deal with the snafu with the lights and then faced some power-play pressure early in the game. He made six early saves, then pretty much could have taken a nap for the rest of the period. The Kings did a good job of preventing a lot of pressure from getting to him.

That was particularly the case on the penalty kill. It seemed more aggressive and there were a good number of blocked/deflected shots, so we’ll see if that holds up and if the penalty kill is truly improved.

The Kings’ top players seem to be in good form, particularly Visnovsky, Cammalleri and Kopitar. Handzus and Nagy have a definite chemistry together and Handzus isn’t afraid to whip the puck across the ice if he knows his countryman is somewhere in the area.

Each team had seven shots in the period. Ryan Getzlaf had three for the Ducks. The Kings won 11 of 18 faceoffs.

The lines that I just posted appear accurate. On defense it’s Blake with Visnovsky, Johnson with Stuart and Preissing with Modry.

It’s been a while since the Ducks have had a shot, thanks to the Kings’ multiple power plays. Five minutes left in the first period.

Here’s how it looks to me. Hard to tell because there’s so much power-play time

Brown-Kopitar-Cammalleri
Calder-Armstrong-Frolov
Nagy-Handzus-Zeiler
O’Sullivan-Murray-Ivanans

First PP unit: Blake-Visnovsky-Cammalleri-Kopitar-Frolov

O’Sullivan and Zeiler might be flipped there, I’m not certain.

During a 5-on-3, Cammalleri whipped a quick one-timer with Calder running traffic in front. Calder might have gotten a piece of it but Cammalleri got credit, from Visnovsky and Frolov.

Bernier has already helped kill a 5-on-3 and made six saves, including a couple from close range. He dropped one fairly juicy rebound but otherwise has looked very composed.

We’re about six minutes into the scoreless game.

Todd Bertuzzi took a penalty, but Anze Kopitar took one of his own less than a minute later. Jonathan Bernier got tested early, when Getzlaf went around O’Sullivan and put a backhand on net, but Bernier easily pushed it aside.

The ice is three feet shorter in this arena, and they took it out of the neutral zone.

The teams are now back in the dressing rooms during the delay. Bang-up job there, AEG…

The lights won’t come on, apparently. Perhaps a test run would have been in order…