There were a lot of questions swirling around the Penguins five weeks ago tonight, when they hit the nadir in what was looking very much like a lost season.

Not a single one involved whether they had peaked too soon, although that is looking like a legitimate topic in the wake of their 4-1 victory last night against Los Angeles at Mellon Arena.

Thirty-five days ago, in the wake of a humbling 6-2 loss in Toronto, people wondered whether general manager Ray Shero would respond to the growing public pressure to make a major trade, or whether his team's meltdown at the Air Canada Centre would cost coach Michel Therrien his job.

And, for that matter, whether there was anything Shero -- or anyone else -- could do to salvage a season that was nearly three-quarters over.

The next day, Shero replaced Therrien with Dan Bylsma, and the most stunning transformation in franchise history began.

"We knew we had good players," center Jordan Staal said. "It was just a matter of coming together and playing good hockey. I envisioned us playing like this, but not this quickly."

No one could have. Beating the Kings raised the Penguins' record under Bylsma to 12-1-3, and pushed their point total to 86.

It usually takes 92 to 94 to clinch a playoff berth, so the surge under Bylsma should all but guarantee them a spot unless they implode during the final nine games.

Still, the Penguins are just six points out of ninth place, so complacency isn't an option.

"We didn't make the playoffs yet," defenseman Sergei Gonchar said. "Everybody else is winning, too."

Beyond simply qualifying for the playoffs, the Penguins' objective is to grab fourth place in the Eastern Conference, which would give them home-ice advantage during the first round of the playoffs. They are tied for fourth with Philadelphia, which will visit Mellon Arena at 12:38 p.m. tomorrow.

The Flyers are the front-runners to claim the No. 4 seed, mostly because they have three games in hand, but also because it's hard to believe the Penguins can maintain their current pace.

When their record from the past 16 games is projected over an 82-game season, it translates to 138 points, 19 more than the franchise record, set in 1992-93.

Nonetheless, the Penguins insist they not only can maintain their current level of play, but upgrade it.

"We can only get better, I think," Staal said. "We can still improve on our game, our system."

There wasn't much need for that last night, though. They held the Kings to 25 shots, and the only goal they allowed came during a two-man disadvantage when penalty-killer Craig Adams had broken his stick.

Penguins centers Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each scored one goal and set up another.

Malkin's pair of points raised his league-leading total to 104, while Crosby's pushed his to 94 and moved him past Washington's Alex Ovechkin and into second place in the scoring race.

Crosby put the Penguins in front to stay with a nice individual effort at 12:33 of the opening period.

He picked off a blind backhand pass by Kings forward Justin Williams near the right-wing boards, then cut toward the slot before throwing a backhander past goalie Jonathan Quick for his 28th.

Crosby figured prominently in the winning goal, too.

The Penguins were on a power play when Crosby threw a cross-ice pass to Malkin, who was at the left side of the crease and steered the puck behind Quick at 17:28 for his 33rd.

Tyler Kennedy made it 3-0 at 11:08 of the second by flipping a rebound by Quick, and Bill Guerin put the game out of reach when he took a Malkin feed and beat Quick from the slot at 13:31 for his 19th.

Michal Handzus of the Kings closed out the scoring at 7:27 of the third when a shot by Drew Doughty, one of the NHL's best young defensemen, that appeared to be going wide glanced off him on the way to the net during a five-on-three power play.

"I'm not quite sure that shot would have gone in on its own," Bylsma said.

While that goal cost Marc-Andre Fleury a shutout, it hardly fazed his teammates, who are playing with the confidence born of picking up 27 of a possible 32 points.

"When your team has an identity and knows how it has to play, then you're starting to develop a bit of a swagger to your team," Bylsma said. "And we have every right to have that right now with our record in the past 15 games."