After falling to the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Kings needed a bounce-back win on Friday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
They delivered emphatically with a 5-0 victory which featured a 4-goal first period.
The Kings' first few shifts were a little sloppy and disconnected but a Pierre-Luc Dubois power-play goal got them going and they never looked back.
Anze Kopitar scored twice off two beautiful Quinton Byfield feeds, Alex Laferriere tipped home his 10th goal and Jordan Spence found the net for the first time this season.
The offense has dried up of late for the Kings, so this was a good performance to maybe get some confidence back.
While the Kings certainly deserve a lot of credit for putting Chicago to the sword, the Blackhawks' poor play can't be ignored either.
They were terrible defensively and didn't threaten Cam Talbot much outside of an early Andreas Athanasiou chance.
Good teams leave no doubt in games like this, and the high-end talent of someone like Byfield was on display, but the Blackhawks looked a league behind all night.
The Kings can't get complacent with that win as things get far more difficult Saturday night.
They finish their road trip against the Dallas Stars, a team that's dominated them this season.
The Kings are 0-2 against the Stars and have been outscored 9-2 in those two games.
One big positive some fans have taken from this game is the play of Dubois.
After a big mistake early, he turned things around and finished with a goal and an assist.
Outside of the production, he looked engaged across all 200 feet which is a big positive.
Still, as I've said many times this season, we need to see this from him consistently before getting excited.
Preferably against a top team too.
I don't want to get too negative after a good win, but for Dubois, and the team overall, you also can't get too excited after Friday's game.
Saturday against the Stars is the real test.