LOS ANGELES (AP) — Willie Desjardins was uncertain how much impact he really had on the Los Angeles Kings in his first game behind their bench. The interim coach didn’t alter the lineup from their last game under John Stevens John Tavares Jersey , and he hasn’t yet implemented any major strategic changes.Whatever or whoever was behind it, the Kings showed more than enough spark to rout their closest rivals.Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and two assists, and the Kings opened Desjardins’ tenure with a 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night.Jack Campbell made 30 saves and picked up his first career assist as the Kings comfortably won the first Freeway Faceoff of the season for these two struggling Southern California rivals.Dustin Brown and Kyle Clifford scored first-period goals for the Kings as they picked right back up from Saturday’s win over Columbus to earn their first back-to-back victories of the season.Desjardins has run just one practice since getting his new job Sunday after the Kings fired Stevens early in his second season in charge. Los Angeles had slumped to the bottom of the overall NHL standings, but the Kings welcomed the new boss with a big win.“It was good to get back,” Desjardins said. “I thought the guys played hard. I thought we didn’t maintain the game as well as we wanted, but the first period was a good start, and we’ll build on that.”The former Vancouver coach’s new players responded with plenty of the passion they often lacked under Stevens, who took the fall along with assistant coach Don Nachbaur for the Kings’ 4-8-1 start. Tyler Toffoli’s empty-net goal clinched LA’s third win in four games following a six-game skid.“It was a wakeup call for everybody,” said Kovalchuk, who has nine points in the last four games. “We’re taking responsibility for what happened, and we’re responding to it. We looked in the mirror, and we all know we can do a better job.”Ryan Kesler scored and John Gibson stopped 23 shots for the injury-wracked Ducks, who have lost eight of nine and earned points in just three games during that span. While the Kings appear to be turning a corner Authentic Jordan Eberle Jersey , Anaheim is stuck.“They pushed us, and we had no response,” Kesler said. “Very disappointed in that. We got down 3-0, we had a pretty good second period, and in the third period, we really didn’t muster very much.”Brown got the Kings’ first goal of Desjardins’ tenure when he swatted Kovalchuk’s centering pass out of midair just 6½ minutes in. The goal was Brown’s third in four games since spending the first 10 games of the season sidelined by a broken finger.Clifford scored his second goal of the season later in the opening period, getting alone in front of Gibson for a backhand. Kovalchuk made it 3-0 early in the second, getting his fifth goal on a breakaway set up by a long pass from Campbell.Kesler got the Ducks going with a deflection of Marcus Pettersson’s shot later in the second, but Anaheim didn’t score again.“I didn’t think we had the intensity that was required early in the hockey game,” Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. “It took us kind of halfway through the game before we got ourselves awake. Even though we didn’t play to the level we’re capable of, I think it’s a good start for our group.”NOTES: Campbell was Desjardins’ goalie with the AHL’s Texas Stars from 2012-14. … The clubs met for the 138th time. The Kings improved to 61-51-26 in the Freeway Faceoff. … Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf returned to the lineup after missing one game with an upper-body injury, but Anaheim is still without forwards Corey Perry, Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie. … Ducks forward Brian Gibbons got hurt in a collision with teammate Andrew Cogliano at the moment Kesler’s goal entered LA’s net. Gibbons bled onto the ice from his face before heading to the dressing room. He returned for the third period.UP NEXTDucks: Host the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night.Kings: Host the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. WASHINGTON (AP) The Stanley Cup Final is a block party for the Washington Capitals.For all of Evgeny Kuznetsov’s points on offense and Braden Holtby’s saves in net Womens Josh Bailey Jersey , the Capitals are one win away from blocking their way to the Cup. They’ve gotten in front of almost a third of the Vegas Golden Knights’ shots, blocking with enough smarts and precision to take a 3-1 series lead into Game 5 Thursday.”There’s more to blocking shots than just going out there and trying to get hit,” Holtby said. ”We’re doing a great job of creating the right layers, guys going out there strategically to know which lane I’m picking for sight lines and they’re taking away the other half and making big blocks.”Washington is blocking in quantity and quality in the final, 86 total, in limiting Vegas to 124 shots on Holtby – many of which he’s seeing and stopping . Even star captain Alex Ovechkin is blocking shots as he gets closer to tasting his first championship.”You see `O’ jumping in front of shots, it makes everyone on the team want to do the same,” winger Devante Smith-Pelly said.Blocking shots is a team-wide commitment right now and comes from a season’s worth of skaters, goaltending coach Scott Murray, Holtby and Philipp Grubauer getting on the same page. The goalies have worked on making sure they can see past blocks to give players the confidence to get in front of pucks.And in return, Capitals players study opponents’ tendencies and consciously decide when to try to block a shot and not so Holtby isn’t at a disadvantage.”You obviously don’t want to cross in front of him,” center Jay Beagle said. ”You don’t want to become a screen. So if you miss the block, which happens Mathew Barzal Jersey , guys are good at shooting pucks and stuff, you want it still so from your standpoint you didn’t hinder Holts’ view.”Defensemen have an understanding of which half of the net is their responsibility and which half is Holtby’s. Forwards closer to the blue line have to react quickly, take the right angle and get to the shooter.”If guys have time and space, they’re going to be able to sift one through,” Smith-Pelly said. ”For the forwards, it’s just going out there pretty hard and just getting in the way.”The amount of shots the Capitals have blocked through four games seems to be getting in the Golden Knights’ heads. They’re struggling to get quality shots through and resorting to settling for lower-danger scoring chances.”If you’re going to take shots, make sure they pay a price for blocking those shots,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. ”Shoot it harder.”Capitals coach Barry Trotz doesn’t want his players thinking too much about blocking shots or hesitating. He doesn’t care much about Ovechkin’s blocking form or the philosophy of shot-blocking as long as it keeps the puck out of the net.”If you’re positionally sound, if you’re in shot lanes, block the shot,” Trotz said. ”It’s all about will.”And that will can turn into skill. Washington has been comfortable and confident enough in the final to push the puck up ice quickly, and a well-timed block shot can set the table for an odd-man rush.”The less shots they have, the more opportunities we’re gonna have in offensive zone http://www.islandersfanproshop.com/authentic-nick-leddy-jersey ,” defenseman Dmitry Orlov said. ”Sometimes when you block it, you get quicker pass and you jump on the rush and you got 3-on-2 or 4-on-3.”The Golden Knights by this point are well-aware of that. But they don’t really have a solution.”You just have to – I don’t know – defensemen, puck fake, maybe move around, or maybe look for a guy off to the side, or put it off the end wall,” forward Alex Tuch said. ”There are a bunch of different plays that could happen and when they’re blocking shots they’re getting momentum from it, and if they’re blocking shots and having odd-man rushes that’s even worse. ”In addition to a suffocating neutral-zone trap that’s not easy to play but has frustrated opponents for four rounds, the Capitals have embraced a shot-blocking-when-it-matters mentality.”It’s not exactly fun, but you got to do if you really want to win,” Smith-Pelly said. ”Everyone is on board with doing those things.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals—