The Kings beat the Sharks in their home opener after a long road trip

The NHL season turned three weeks old on Friday, just hours after the Kings played on home ice for the first time.

“It's definitely strange,” captain Anze Kopitar said Thursday before the Kings played at Crypto.com Arena for the first time in 175 days, defeating the San Jose Sharks 3-2 in front of a sellout crowd of 18,146. “End of October. So a little different.”

The Kings were forced out of their building for the first seven games of the season due to the third phase of a multimillion-dollar renovation of Crypto.com Arena, which turned 25 this month. Adding in part of the preseason spent in Utah and Quebec, the trip lasted more than a month, making the Kings the last team in the league to play at home.

Six others have already played five games on home ice. And there is no doubt that this put the Kings at a disadvantage. Not only were the players separated from their families, but the home team put their sticks down last on faceoffs, increasing their chances of winning at the drop, and got last change on substitutions after the final whistle, allowing them to take advantage of matchup advantages .

“This is huge,” said Jim Fox, a Kings TV analyst who played nine seasons in the NHL.

That's not the only benefit of coming home.

“The fans,” said Kings President Luc Robitaille, “are taking advantage of the home advantage.”

“You can break it down a lot of different ways,” second-year coach Jim Hiller added. “Your routine is familiar. When you eat, when you get in your car, what the rink looks like. And I think for us, especially during this time, it's just about coming home, getting some fresh air and giving people a chance to see their families again.

“Everyone is in a pretty good mood.”

Probably because they played so well away from home and got eight out of a possible 14 points in the seven games. But long road trips are nothing new for the Kings, who have had to leave their arena 20 times in the last 24 seasons to make way for the Grammy Awards. These multi-week trips usually take place in the middle of winter; Starting the season on the road is much better, Hiller said.

“Once you get deeper in, it's basically like you have a battery. “Your battery starts to die, so the rides end up really taking a toll on you,” he said. “At the beginning everyone is fresh, hungry, excited.”

“Because it is a bit unprecedented, we have to be careful,” he added. “There’s a big picture that’s playing out.”

For a team welcoming more than half a dozen new players, a long road trip can also be an exercise in bonding, especially this early in the season.

“When you get new people, you want to spend as much time as possible,” Kopitar said. “The trip was really good in that respect.”

San Jose Sharks center Luke Kunin engages in a battle with Kings left wing Andre Lee in the first period on Thursday.

(William Liang/Associated Press)

One of those new players, Warren Foegele, who left Edmonton in July to sign with the Kings (4-2-2), introduced himself to the new fans by hitting in a sloppy game the Kings played in on Thursday. scored two goals in the first 12 minutes, went to the penalty box eight times and conceded two power play goals against San Jose (0-6-2).

“First time in this locker room,” said Foegele, who said he needed help finding the locker room. “This is probably the rink I’ve played at the second most times. It was nice to be on the side.”

After the last three seasons ended with first-round playoff losses to Foegele's Oilers, Robitaille said it was obvious the team would have to do something different – aside from changing the schedule – if it wanted different results. In addition to adding Foegele, the Kings traded underperforming forward Pierre-Luc Dubois and the $59.5 million remaining on his contract to the Washington Capitals for goaltender Darcy Kuemper, signed defenseman Joel Edmundson to a three-year deal and traded him against winger Tanner Jeannot and defenseman Kyle Burroughs. The team has also abandoned its cumbersome 1-3-1 neutral zone trap in favor of a more attacking 1-2-2, a formation that Kopitar said has given the team dynamism.

More productive too, with the Kings averaging more than 31 shots per game, fourth-best in the 16-team Western Conference.

“We changed our roster,” said Robitaille, whose team also must find a way to deal with the loss of standout defenseman Drew Doughty, who will miss at least half the season after undergoing surgery for a broken ankle. “The biggest thing this year was changing the identity a little bit. More than a third of our team has changed. So it’s going to take some time for our guys to play exactly the way we want.”

Kings goalkeeper David Rittich makes a save against the San Jose Sharks in the first period.

(William Liang/Associated Press)

Starting the season with seven consecutive away games will help reinforce that identity. But Robitaille sees an even bigger advantage: The Kings have already played 17% of their road schedule.

“You have to play 41 away games, whether you play them in the first week or the last week,” he said. “We could complain about it and other teams would complain about it, but every team has some issues with the schedule. It's just part of it.

“You just keep going, make the best of it and come out of it. If you’re ahead, you’re better off.”