Second Opinions

Lines from a couple of hockey score sheets:

Alexander Frolov scored two goals in a 5-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, his third and fourth goals in the last four games, which have helped keep the injury-ravaged Kings in the playoff race.

A night earlier, Stanislav Chistov served a bench penalty for the Mighty Ducks. It was his only noticeable contribution to a team that has become a bottom feeder in the Western Conference.

Those sum up the paths the two second-year left wings have taken this season.

Frolov has scored 16 goals, two more than in his rookie season. Chistov, meanwhile, has one goal in 43 games.

“Some second-year guys struggle,” Duck General Manager Bryan Murray said. “They don’t understand the commitment that is required.

“The thing older players tell me is as they get older they get themselves in better shape during the off-season to extend their careers. Their understanding of what it takes to play in this league gets better.”

Frolov, 21, seems to understand already.

He had some success as a rookie last season, scoring 14 goals and finishing sixth among rookies with 31 points.

He started slowly this season and was singled out by Coach Andy Murray. Frolov, it seemed, did not want to shoot. He tried to make the perfect pass and often held the puck too long, earning a demotion to the fourth line.

“In the NHL, guys shoot much better and much more than in Russian leagues,” said Frolov, the Kings’ top selection (20th overall) in the 2000 draft. “It took a little time for me to shoot some more. Andy was always telling me to shoot, and he probably still does a little bit. It’s a little bit different here from what our Russian coaches taught us when we were growing up.”

Frolov, however, was too skilled to stay buried on the fourth line. He quickly moved back into scoring-line status and demonstrated superior strength with the puck, showing the ability to maintain possession in the corners and while coming down the boards with a defenseman draped on his shoulder.

“He takes on all the big defensemen down low protecting the puck,” Andy Murray said. “He’s as good at protecting the puck down low as I’ve seen. He’s a talent. The big thing for him is just to sustain it.”

And keep shooting.

“He’s definitely looking to shoot more,” Murray said. “He’s got a pretty good shot. I think there’s some success reinforcement there. He has shot and scored more because of it.”

Chistov, the fifth player taken in the 2001 draft, has yet to absorb that shooting lesson. But that is only a small piece to his meandering season, which has frustrated the Duck hierarchy.

Chistov had 12 goals and 30 points last season, then supplemented that with a few spotlight moments during the Ducks’ run to the Stanley Cup finals. He scored four goals in the playoffs, including the winner against Detroit in Game 3 of the first round.

“I thought I would be better this season,” Chistov said. “I had more experience. I’m not sure why it has not gone well.”

Coach Mike Babcock knows, and is hardly bashful about sharing.

“I don’t think I know, I know,” Babcock said. “Unlike other young guys who went home and trained hard, he went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals and thought, ‘Gee, is this league ever easy. I’m a star.’ He didn’t realize how hard he had to train.... In this league, they don’t give you any freebies. They don’t let you catch up.”

If that’s what happened, Chistov, 20, remains somewhat unaware.

“I was training,” he said. “I was working as hard as anybody. Maybe I was not working as hard as I thought.”

Frolov worked and now has to work even harder. Almost by default, he has become the Kings’ top offensive hope because four of their top six forwards are injured.

Frolov matched last season’s total with his 14th goal Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks, a highlight show-topper in which he turned defenseman Johnathan Aitken inside out at the right circle and beat goaltender Craig Anderson through the pads.

His teammates called it one of the top plays they’d seen this season, certainly one of the top individual efforts on the Kings.

Frolov, however, doesn’t define his role as filling the vacuum created when Jason Allison, Adam Deadmarsh, Ziggy Palffy and Martin Straka were sidelined. He sees it as a natural progression -- hey, somebody’s got to score.

“It’s really tough when guys like Ziggy don’t play,” Frolov said. “But even if you have Ziggy in the lineup, you’ve got to score. It seems the same to me.”

The Kings have remained in the playoff picture despite triage’s becoming an ever-increasing part of the day for Andy Murray. Frolov has become a key to their remaining in the race.

The Ducks, who seem rooted in the Pacific Division’s cellar, can’t hang all their woes in Chistov’s locker, but he has been a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution.

There were thoughts of Chistov’s being teamed on a line with Sergei Fedorov, giving the Ducks a wicked Russian combo that would give opponents cold sweats. Those turned out to be flights of fantasy.

“I know he’s trying,” Fedorov said. “I have talked a lot to him. Everyone has. The thing that has happened is fun became a job and then he got lost.”

Chistov has 15 assists, tying him for the team lead. Yet his role, and his ice time, have been reduced. He has played no more than 10 minutes in six of his last 12 games.

“I’m not scoring and the team is not winning, that makes it difficult,” Chistov said. “I am helping in other ways. I am playing better on defense. It’s not all about goals.”

Said Babcock: “I think Cheesy is playing better than he was at the start. But the reality is, how far are we into the season and he hasn’t scored an even-strength goal?”