Ducks, who beat the Kings, 2-1, look to build speed, pace

Anaheim’s attention has been closely fixed on a certain team in the Central Time Zone.

Chicago … naturally.

The Ducks have plenty of company in trying to photocopy a page or two from the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup championship playbook.

“Not only do they have guys that move well, they just have a higher pace of play,” Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano said.

“They move the puck well, they transition well and ultimately that’s something we need to be better in. I think the players that came in can help with that.”

This was several hours before the Ducks beat the Kings, 2-1, in their preseason game on Friday night at Honda Center. Cogliano has not played in Anaheim’s first two preseason games. Anaheim was sparked by goals from Stefan Noesen, on the power play, and Patrick Maroon and the Kings’ lone goal came on a short-handed effort by Trevor Lewis.

Kings Coach Darryl Sutter took issue with Maroon’s goal.

“Well, there’s no [video] reviews in preseason,” Sutter said. “So I guess you can hit somebody over the head with your stick and get away with it too. It was a high stick. It was blatant.”

All three goals were scored in the second period. For the Ducks, goalie Frederik Andersen went the distance, facing 25 shots, and Kings goalie Jonathan Quick played two periods and gave way to Jhonas Enroth for the third.

Both teams are working on incorporating new looks in the lineup. Kings captain Dustin Brown noted the “different feel” in camp this time around.

“I think overall right now there’s a lot of opportunities for guys and as a result you have lots of guys playing with a lot of different guys and trying to figure it out, which is something we haven’t really had in the past few years,” Brown said.

Ducks General Manager Bob Murray already was adding dashes of speed to the lineup — acquiring Jiri Sekac from Montreal late last regular season. But he went all in in the off-season, pulling off a trade with the New York Rangers for Carl Hagelin.

The up-tempo game isn’t limited to the champion Blackhawks.

“When you start playing teams like Chicago, playing teams like Dallas, you can match their pace,” said Cogliano. “We have guys that move the puck well and sometimes there’s better speed than actually skating fast. The quicker you move the puck is ultimately the most important thing.

“That’s how we want to play this year.”

Now Cogliano now has some company in the blinding speed department.

Anaheim Coach Bruce Boudreau thought Sekac, who scored twice Tuesday at Colorado, was the Ducks’ best forward in that game.

“Let’s not forget: We had a small sample size last year, 16 regular-season games and seven playoff games,” Boudreau said of Sezac after Friday’s morning skate. “So the more we can see of him, another year of growth, then the more we can evaluate him.”

The Ducks were one for six on the power play against the Kings.

“We struggled, for sure,” Boudreau said. “L.A.’s got a great penalty-killing team. We haven’t really had a chance to practice it live against other teams. But we’ve got great footage, of video, to show the guys what we have to do.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

Twitter: @reallisa