While there is still some tweaking to do among the Kings’ lines, the defensive pairs appear to be set. Jack Johnson with Matt Greene, Drew Doughty with Sean O’Donnell and Tom Preissing with Denis Gauthier. Peter Harrold serves as the extra defenseman, at least at the start of the season.

In each case, Terry Murray sought to pair a puck-moving defenseman with a more physical presence. In Doughty’s case, Murray and Dean Lombardi thought it was important to pair Doughty with a veteran. Thus the interest in Mathieu Schneider and several other defensemen during the offseason. The O’Donnell trade was an offshoot of the Schneider talks. Lombardi and Brian Burke couldn’t reach agreement on Schneider, then turned to O’Donnell.

Will it work? Tough to say. The Kings have a new system under Murray, and none of these pairs has ever played together before. The Kings gave up at least three regulation goals in five of their eight preseason games. Will it work out better than last season?