Despite sitting last in the NHL with 49 points, the Los Angeles Kings are a team stocked with former first-round draft picks and buoyed by gifted young players.

Sound familiar? It's reminiscent of the Penguins circa 2005-06.

"We've been there," said Penguins coach Michel Therrien, whose team plays the Kings this afternoon.

"They're rebuilding. They've got some good, young players."

That starts with second-year center Anze Kopitar, who leads Los Angeles with 51 points. The list continues with winger Alexander Frolov, 25, who is second with 44 points and leads the team with five winning goals.

Winger Dustin Brown, in his third full NHL season, is third on the team with 41 points and tops the Kings with 10 power-play goals. Below him is defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky with 30 points. Then comes second-year center Mike Cammalleri with 29 points and nine power-play goals. Center Patrick O'Sullivan, who just turned 23, also has 29 points.

Of those top six Kings scorers, five were first-round draft picks; Cammalleri was a second-rounder. There are five other former first-rounders.

Although the team is without veteran defenseman and captain Rob Blake, who was put on injured reserve this week because of an ankle injury, Los Angeles has found its legs recently, winning two games in a row, three of its past four and going 8-3-1 in its past 12.

Thursday, in a matchup of first- and last-place teams in the league, the Kings stormed back from a two-goal deficit to score four goals on first eight shots of the third period to win at Detroit, 5-3.

"They're playing with confidence right now, and they've got skill," Therrien said. "When a team has skill and confidence, you never know what's going to happen."

Kennedy to minors

Now that he's recovering from mononucleosis and able to practice, rookie forward Tyler Kennedy has been reassigned to the Penguins' Wilkes-Barre/Scranton minor-league team.

Kennedy, who has eight goals, four assists in 31 games between two promotions with the Penguins, missed the past eight games because of his illness.

"He needs to play. He hasn't played much for a month," Therrien said, adding that it won't be automatic that Kennedy rejoins the Penguins at some point.

"I can't say we sent him down for conditioning. If he plays well, he'll get rewarded. That's the message we told him."

Although there's no specific timetable, it's believed goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will follow Kennedy to Wilkes-Barre fairly soon.

His trip will be a conditioning assignment before he rejoins the Penguins lineup. He has been out more than two months because of a high ankle sprain.

Penguins winger Ryan Malone was excused from practice yesterday because he was expecting the imminent birth of his first child. ... With back-to-back afternoon home games today against the Kings and tomorrow against Philadelphia, the Penguins will be considerably off their normal routine. "I told the players to make sure to eat well [last night], get some rest, wake up early," Therrien said.