INSIDER: Corey Perry Continues To Find A Way

After last night’s game, Drew Doughty gave us the “I told you so” about Corey Perry.

“I told everyone this was going to happen,” Doughty said. “He’s a great player, great pro. My goal was solely because of him standing front of the net and we don’t have enough guys that do that, to be honest with you, he’s one of our only ones. It’s something our other guys should learn from him.”

There’s a lot to dissect there.

For Perry, the praise came after his most impactful game on the scoresheet as a King. In the first period of a 0-0 slog, Perry did what he always does. He went to the blue paint, found a loose puck and got it across the goal line. Such a Corey Perry goal and he earned it. The Kings needed it.

In the second period, Perry made a nifty play off the wall to spring a 2-on-1 the other way, with Jeff Malott keeping the puck himself for a good goal in transition, with Perry tallying the primary assist. Just a couple minutes later, Perry created another goal without touching the puck, as Doughty alluded to. He positioned himself right in front of San Jose goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, limiting his vision, which allowed Doughty to score top shelf for his first goal of the season and put the visitors ahead 3-0.

Three Kings goals early and Perry played a hand in all three, whether he got the points or not.

“It's just incredible,” Head Coach Jim Hiller said of Perry’s play. “Some guys, the puck just ends up on their stick. He's at the front of the net, so he gives himself every opportunity, but he still finds pucks and he still finds ways to put them in. You wish you could teach it, you wish other players could learn from it, some guys just have a special, special ability, and he's one of them.”

His early impact is obviously not a surprise to Doughty. But there’s still some magic to it, isn’t there?

At 40-years-old, Perry joined the Kings this summer on a one-year contract, a player targeted by new General Manager Ken Holland to deliver in areas he felt the Kings were short on come the postseason. Perry’s track record of advancing to the Stanley Cup Final speaks for itself. Perry was brought in to impact games in April but it turns out the Kings needed him sooner than that.

Off to a 1-3-2 start while he was sidelined with an early-season knee injury, Perry returned for the first of five straight on the road last week in St. Louis. Four wins and nine points later, from a possible five and ten, the Kings have flipped the script on their slow start, moving into a playoff position in the Pacific Division. When the wheels touched down in Los Angeles, the Kings were tied for second in the Pacific Division, two points out of the division lead in the early stages of the season.

Perry certainly helped to play a part in the turnaround.

There’s also the other part of what Doughty said and that's been Perry's impact beyond just the scoresheet.

Perhaps put a bit more bluntly than what others have said, but it’s the learning element that Perry provides. After he was activated from injured reserve, Perry spoke about how when he came into the NHL back in 2005, he learned from players like Teemu Selanne, Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. Three Hall of Famers, as Perry could be as well in the future. He learned how to go to the net by battling with Pronger, one of the hardest defensemen in NHL history to play against. Even in practice, Pronger made life difficult on Perry. He learned quickly where goals are scored in this league and that’s by getting to the blue paint.

So far, Perry has three goals in five games with the Kings. Those three goals feel like they’ve come from a combined three feet away from the goal line. All three are classified as “high-danger chances”, coming from right inside the house. It’s what Doughty is talking about with Perry, how he gets to the net and how he wants to see more in that area from the Kings. It's something that not every player is either able to do or willing to do, certainly not at Perry's level. There's a reason he's one of the best to ever do it from that area of the ice. But he's a willing mentor and hopefully, there are willing learners to match that.

Anze Kopitar was inclined to feel the same way. Kopitar and Doughty themselves are players who others try to learn from. But they know what Perry has been through as well, from another perspective, specializing in different areas of the game. Koptiar sees the value in having Perry with the Kings and has been impressed with his early impact, both on the ice and in the room with younger players.

“We’ve had some good battles over the years,” Kopitar said of Perry. “Just his veteran presence, professionalism, when you look at how he prepares for practice, prepares for games, it's really good to have a guy around like that, especially for the young guys to maybe learn a thing or two. He’s been hitting the scoresheet too, so that's very nice to see.”

It’s the battles against him over the years that make players like Kopitar appreciate having Perry as a teammate now.

Hiller hasn’t been in the trenches against Perry as a player but he’s certainly game-planned for him as a coach. It’s always been about the little things with Perry. While he often gets talked about for things that happen outside of the whistles, Perry thrives in the dirtiest of areas during the flow of the game. That stands out, as it did last night in San Jose.

“These are some of the things, I guess, as a coach, you really just get to appreciate,” Hiller added. “You bring a guy like Corey in and you’ve battled against him for years, never enjoyed coaching against him and you get him on your side and he just keeps going. He just finds a way. It's really incredible.”

He just finds a way.

Kind of a good representation of last night’s team performance. The Kings played, in Doughty’s words, their worst game of the season. A three-goal lead blown, several avoidable penalties including two in the offensive zone, one in the neutral zone and a delay-of-game minor. It was a night when the Kings didn’t have their legs, compounded by lots of wrong decisions in the wrong moments of the game. And yet, when the dust settled, they left San Jose with a 4-3 victory and a 4-0-1 roadtrip, one point shy of the maximum they could have earned.

Perry certainly played his part there, both in last night’s win and the overall results of the trip. He’s a point-per-game player early in the season, with five (3-2-5) from five games played and the Kings have needed all of them. His first goal got the Kings on the board after a slow start in Dallas, a game that eventually turned into a big overtime win. He scored again in Nashville as the Kings earned a point. Then the two points last night. You wonder where they might be without those goals and those assists. Or maybe it's friendlier not to wonder.

Look, there's always going to be a shred of uneasiness when it comes to at least a segment of Kings fans rooting for a player they've loved to hate over the years. I mean, he got booed in his own building on Opening Night. I'll tell you what, though. I don't think that going to happen on Thursday when he plays his first game with the club at Crypto.com Arena. It shouldn't. Because, for all that has happened over the years, in the here and now, Perry has something going and that something is helping to drive the Kings to victories, especially on nights when they've been outplayed. In order to find success, the Kings can't just count on Perry turning back the clock, but they'll most certainly take as much as he's got to give right now. Not much more you could ask from a guy who just continues to find a way to get the job done.