Kings after deadline: Power play moves, Voynov and Hickey earn praise

The Kings figured out something that almost anyone watching their power play most of last season could have told them:

When they stand around and become predictable, they’re not going to score.

They had more moving parts Wednesday and capitalized on a man advantage for their only goal in a 2-1 shootout loss in a split-squad game against the Phoenix Coyotes at Staples Center.

Mike Richards flicked the puck toward Dustin Brown in front, and the gritty right wing battled for it while it was at his feet. Defenseman Viatcheslav (Slava) Voynov had come deep into the zone and was able to poke it past goalie Justin Pogge at 5:53 of the second period.

“I think from the power play standpoint we need more of that,” Brown said.

He also said that while it’s tough to maintain movement on the power play it’s worth the effort because it confuses opponents’ penalty killers.

“When you have a moving power play with people at the net at the same time it’s pretty tough to defend. You can get mixed up in your assignments,” he said. “Tonight we had good movement. We weren’t stationary. I think looking back at last year we were too stationary. We had their half-wall guy, we had a low guy and we had a net-front guy. That was it.

“I prefer in front of the net but there were a couple of times I’m on the half-wall and just kind of slide out and give it to a guy and go to the net and that creates movement, which is tough for a [penalty killer].”