At this stage of their ongoing transformations, the Kings and Ducks have climbed well north of rock bottom but remain a good way south of Stanley Cup contention. Being a work in progress means they will sometimes produce the sublime and sometimes the ridiculous, occasionally in the same game.
The goal-starved Ducks, who recently went winless in nine games and fell near the bottom of the NHL in goals per game, have suddenly become a scoring juggernaut. Shots that hit posts or crossbars a week ago are finding the net — a turn of luck that, like most supposedly lucky occurrences in hockey, was born of hard work and fundamentals such as going to the net in order to make something, anything, happen in their favor.