No Big Surprises After One Night

Someday, the Ducks’ 4-3 victory over the Kings on Friday might be remembered as the first step toward the triumphant destiny that has been forecast for them this season by experts from Boston to British Columbia.

It will surely be remembered as the night a star was born, when Slovenian teenager Anze Kopitar gave Kings fans incentive to sustain the hope they’ve nursed, against all reason, through

38 seasons that have ended

without a Stanley Cup championship.

So much is expected of the Ducks this season, and so little of the Kings. Their season opener didn’t change that, although Kopitar’s brilliant effort in turning Chris Pronger inside-out and lifting the puck over Jean-Sebastien Giguere for the Kings’ first goal suggested he’s as terrific as billed -- and that the Kings are in trouble if he’s the only forward willing to go to the net.

To a team that went to the Western Conference finals last season and to the Cup finals in 2003, the Ducks added Pronger, one of the NHL’s top defensemen. The kids who were so raw last season -- Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Chris Kunitz -- know that getting through the season and surviving a long playoff run will take as much mental strength as physical endurance, as much luck as determination.

They expect to be the last team left standing, not because any expert has said so but because they see that belief in each other’s eyes.

That confidence allowed them to remain calm Friday at the newly renamed Honda Center when defenseman Francois Beauchemin inadvertently deflected a shot by Kopitar past Giguere for the Kings’ second goal. It kept them from panicking throughout the Kings’ 44-shot barrage and allowed them to exploit the Kings’ lapses on defense.

“The difference is they had a little more poise in the third period with their scoring chances,” Marc Crawford said after losing his debut as the Kings’ coach.

“That’s something our guys are going to have to learn.”

The Ducks had to learn that lesson last spring, when they watched the Edmonton Oilers beat them for the West title. They saw the Oilers bang and crash and do little things that added up to a lot, winning more on effort than sheer talent.

The Ducks’ talent is undeniable. But only if they blend that with tenacity every game do they have a chance of making those Cup predictions come true.

“Given the lineup in this locker room and additions made in the off-season and the intensity of last year, we feel we should be there, as well,” said center Andy McDonald, whose one-timer from the right circle tied the score at 2-2 at 13:27 of the second period.

“That being said, it’s certainly a long season and we’re not going to get it done because we’re good on paper. We’re going to have to play well. I think we like that little extra pressure in here because we want to do well. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”

But expectations have a strange effect on athletes.

For some, it causes the throat to constrict and the pulse to race out of control, for a stick to be a foreign object in shaking hands.

For others, expectations can become motivation and inspiration.

“Obviously it’s nice to have people pick you to be one of the best teams in the league. We have a great team on paper. Now we just have to go out and prove it and go on from last season,” Kunitz said.

One victory, lively and entertaining though it was, hard-hitting and built upon a strong effort by Giguere and goals from the players who must consistently produce if the Ducks are to play into May and June, is hardly enough to judge whether they will comfortably wear the label of Cup favorite.

“This team, on paper, is right up at the top of the league,” forward Dustin Penner said, “and it will boil down to trying to outwork the opposing team each and every night.

“The only expectations that matter are the ones we ourselves have placed on this team, we and the coaching staff and [General Manager] Brian Burke.... We know what we’re capable of in here and that’s the only pressure we’re going to respond to.”

Kings captain Mattias Norstrom rejected a suggestion that the absence of expectations might make his team loose and capable of a surprise this season.

“If we set the bar that we want to be playing hockey in May, then we need to do that on day one, create that pressure within the room,” he said. “Because sooner or later, if you’re successful, the pressure comes with the territory.”

Two teams, two sets of expectations. Eighty-one more games for each to prove that it can handle the pressure.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.