Kings Put On a Show for Their New Coach

The Kings played with passion. They attacked. They even scored power-play goals.

And Alexander Frolov made it all matter.

Frolov, playing his first game since returning from a separated shoulder, scored two goals in a little more than a minute to rally the Kings to a 6-4 victory over Nashville on Saturday at Staples Center.

The victory, coming in the first game since Andy Murray was fired as coach, kept the Kings in ninth place in the Western Conference, a point behind Vancouver and Edmonton, heading into a crucial three-game trip to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton that begins Monday.

“Fro’s a goal scorer, that’s what they pay him to do,” forward Sean Avery said. “We need him to do that consistently over the next 11 games. He returns for the first time in a month and scores two huge goals.”

Frolov took a drop pass from Craig Conroy, then buried a blur of a shot from just inside the blue line to tie the score, 4-4, with 12 minutes 19 seconds left in the third period. A minute later, Frolov crashed the net on a rush and somehow managed to poke the puck past goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

“That’s what we have to do, put the puck on net and hope you get a bounce,” said Frolov, who sat out 10 games.

There was the breath of emancipation around the Kings’ training facility in the three days since John Torchetti was brought in as interim coach.

The collegiate-like motivational slogans were off the walls and a lengthy to-do list for Saturday’s game was absent from the board in the dressing room. Players were wearing baseball caps en masse -- a fashion faux pas under Murray -- after practice. There was even a hint of giddiness during and after practice.

That free-at-last feeling was underscored when Avery scored the final goal, then dropped to the ice to do push-ups in a look-at-me moment that would have been frowned upon by the previous regime.

It was the perfect cap to the liveliest effort by the Kings since the Olympic break. They out-shot the Predators, 48-19.

“It was amazing how much the difference was,” Avery said. “I haven’t seen guys pay the price like that in a while. Saying that, this was only one game. I hope I’m standing here saying the same thing after the next 11.”

The effort seemed destined to be wasted, and costly, through two periods. Jeremy Roenick suffered a chipped bone in his right leg after being hit by a puck in the second period. He will undergo an MRI exam and CT scan Monday. Derek Armstrong left in the second period as well, after suffering a back injury.

So despite out-shooting the Predators, 29-14, through two periods, the Kings were on the short end of a physical game. The Predators took a 4-3 lead into the third period on the strength of two Paul Kariya goals.

“Even though we were trailing, I knew we were going to win,” goaltender Mathieu Garon said. “You could feel that in the room between periods.”

The Kings spirits were buoyed by three power-play goals in the second period. They had scored only two in their previous 41 power plays entering the game.

Eric Belanger and Mark Parrish erased a 2-0 Nashville lead with power-play goals in the first five minutes on the second period. Dustin Brown then chipped in a shot to give the Kings a brief lead, and some hope.