Improved defense

Despite the loss last night, the Kings were upbeat about their play -- especially on the defensive end. Columbus had few good chances. Two of their goals came off deflections.

``If you're a goaltender, you want teams playing in front of you the way we're playing in front of them right now,'' Crawford said. ``They’re not seeing any abundance of breakdowns. I cant remember the last time we gave up a 2-on-1, a 3-on-1. I cant remember the last time I saw a guy wide open in front of the net for a scoring chance. We’ve really packed it in nicely. We have cleaned up our game and, as a goalie, you have to be excited about that. You know most of the stuff is going to come the way it did last night. They're going to take the puck low, try to outman you at the net. I contend those are much more manageable for a goalie than the breakdown type chances.''

``For the most part, we’ve gotten better at our own end as far as not giving up as much,'' LaBarbera said. ``It puts the onus on us as goalies not to give up too many bad goals. It seems like goals that are going in are scrambles around the net and loose pucks. We're working on that.''