Kings open camp much as they closed season

Outside of a few tweaks, the Kings began training camp Saturday as essentially the same team that finished a surprising sixth in the West last season.

Losing winger Alexander Frolov and replacing him with Alexei Ponikarovsky figures to be a wash; losing mistake-prone Randy Jones and aging Sean O’Donnell to free agency but adding Willie Mitchell, who can make plays when he’s not shutting down opponents’ top scorers, looms as a probable gain on defense.

But they didn’t add a top-six gamebreaking forward, a quest that sent General Manager Dean Lombardi to pursue Ilya Kovalchuk for half the summer. Unless the trade market changes dramatically, the Kings, at least for now, plan to address their anemic five-on-five production strategically and from within.

In the day’s only surprise, Coach Terry Murray, whose insistence on defense first, last and in between has been the foundation of the team’s turnaround, said he wants to push the offensive side of the game.

“We’re encouraging puck possession. We want attacks,” he said. “We want little plays made in that offensive zone, driving hard through to the net, getting pucks to the net. And we’ll stay with that throughout the camp and I believe over the long haul that’s going to pay big dividends for us.”

The switch is fine as long as there are no compromises defensively.

“The checking defensive part of the game has got to be as good or better as it was in the past, last year in particular,” he said.

Otherwise, there were few new wrinkles Saturday.

Murray designated Jonathan Quick the No. 1 goalie and vowed to cut his workload from 72 appearances to the high 50s while leaving Jonathan Bernier and Erik Ersberg to battle for the backup spot. And Murray said he will keep the lines as they were Saturday, though his habit of constantly juggling personnel last season suggests those configurations will change.

He had Ryan Smyth, Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown on the top line, Scott Parse, Jarret Stoll and Justin Williams on the second line, and Ponikarovsky, Michal Handzus and Wayne Simmonds on a strong-at-both-ends third line. Kevin Westgarth, Brad Richardson and Trevor Lewis skated together, as did Corey Elkins, Bud Holloway and Rich Clune.

Brayden Schenn, held out of rookie camp because of a sore knee, began his audition for a spot by centering for Kyle Clifford and Oscar Moller and said the knee felt fine.

On defense, Mitchell was paired with Doughty, Jack Johnson with Rob Scuderi, Alec Martinez with Jake Muzzin, Davis Drewiske with Peter Harrold, and Andrew Campbell with Thomas Hickey.

The new shift toward offense means Doughty and Johnson will have more freedom, which could strike fear in the hearts of NHL goaltenders. Or their own goalies, who last season were protected so well that they faced an average of 27.6 shots per game, third-fewest total in the NHL.

“If that’s the style we’re going to play maybe you’re going to see an extra odd-man rush here or there. It’s just the nature of the game,” said Quick, who lost weight and body fat this summer on a no-junk-food diet and might be glad he’s lighter on his skates.

“I think it makes for an opportunity to maybe make some big saves and get the team’s confidence up at certain points in the game. I’m looking forward to it.”

Murray said he’s not looking for a huge scoring jump from one player but for a few players to score a few more goals. He said Williams, fully recovered from a severely broken leg, “is hungry to prove to us that he’s back.” Having Brown on the top line, he said, “gives me that real power look in the offensive zone. Lots of speed. The ability to come off the wing, shoot the puck.”

On the first day of camp, when anything seems possible, it all sounds like a good plan. Whether that will still be true a month from now is the next test the Kings face.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

Twitter.com/helenenothelen