Jill will have a report from this morning’s skate, but for now, I talked to Derek Armstrong yesterday about how to judge team improvement. The Kings enter tonight’s game with a 10-9-3 record, which, at this point, probably exceeds reasonable preseason expectations. It’s easy, from the outside, to comment on things the Kings have improved on, but I wanted to get a player’s opinion about how things might be improving. Armstrong is one of the few veterans on the team and usually has strong insight to the locker-room culture, so here are his thoughts…

ARMSTRONG: “You see the young guys who really seem to get along in here. There are no egos in here, and out of the young guys there are some leaders emerging on the team. When a team is struggling and everybody is 28 or 30 (years old), there’s not much upside, but when you have guys who are 24 and playing quality minutes and quality hockey, it’s much better. And for some of them, it’s their first or second year. It just seems like all the young kids really get along in the dressing room. There’s no tension and no egos, and I think that’s the most important thing.”

Here’s what Armstrong said about the Kings’ ability to bounce back. Only once this season have the Kings lost more than two games in a row. They had an 0-3-2 stretch at one point, but followed that up with a four-game winning streak…

ARMSTRONG: “The coaches get us prepared, and it’s the job of some of the older guys in here to remind people that it’s a long year. There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs, and every team goes through it. It’s just important to stay consistent and to use practice to your advantage. It’s important that we practice the right way, and the coaches have really kept us on track. They make sure practice is going the proper way, and that’s how you get better as a young team. The time that you’re on the ice, you go to your full ability and you try to learn every day.”