The face on the front of their unlamented third jersey was a poker-faced king and they are masters of hiding their gamble, holding things close to the vest until it is too late to do anything about it.

	Mathieu Schneider leads Kings defensemen with 11 points, six on the power play.

Maybe the Los Angeles Kings should use that sweater more often.

It'd be fitting right now.

The Los Angeles Kings defensemen are once again leading the league in offense from the blue line, a six-pack of six-shooters no team has been able to match this year. They take calculated gambles, jumping into the play when it's not expected, creating scoring chances against suddenly out-numbered opponents. Through Wednesday's games, the Kings had received 13 goals from their defensemen, one more than the Boston Bruins. They have three defensemen in the top-10 in goal scoring: Jaroslav Modry with six (one behind league leader Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings), and Mathieu Schneider and Lubomir Visnovsky with four apiece.

It is interesting to note that seven of the top-10 teams in defensemen goal scoring come from the Western Conference, lending credence to the argument the left half of the National Hockey League plays a more open and creative game.

The only Eastern Conference teams to crack the top-10 were the Montreal Canadiens and Atlanta Thrashers with seven goals apiece, tied with the Phoenix Coyotes.

Just more than 30 percent of the Kings' goal scoring has come from their blue line, also the highest total in the NHL, ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks (27 percent), Nashville Predators (25.8 percent) and Boston Bruins (23.5 percent). Under head coach Andy Murray's aggressive system, the Kings' D-men have the green light to join the rush or jump down the boards from the point to join a cycle.

"He encourages all our defensemen to get involved if the opportunity is there," said Schneider. "We want to try and create offense. That not only helps your defensemen, but it helps the forwards. We have a comfort level that if we jump into the play we are going to be supported. We can jump down the wall, create picks or traffic to the net and it's all part of a system.

"I know it's a cliche, but the best defense is a good offense. They can't score on you if the puck is in their end."

The days of the rushing defenseman in the NHL have been gone for a while. The Kings might be going coast-to-coast a couple of times on their current eight-game, 17-day road trip, but you don't see NHL defensemen doing the same these days.

There's the odd night you might see New York Ranger Brian Leetch go end-to-end, but with the emphasis on defense in today's NHL, most coaches pull the reins back on their blueliners, not wanting to get caught with their defensive stance down.

The Kings aren't much different -- until they get to the offensive zone. Murray has a simple rule of thumb for his defensemen when it comes to determining if the green light is on: "They can jump into the rush if they are going to create an out-numbered situation and not just even it up. If they are just going to even it up, they should be staying back."

	“	I know it's a cliche, but the best defense is a good offense. They can't score on you if the puck is in their end. ”
		— Mathieu Schneider, Kings defenseman

There was a feeling that with the NHL's crackdown on obstruction and interference away from the puck, more defensemen would be encouraged to join in the rush. With defensive players not allowed to tie them up, the gamble of jumping up into the play could pay more dividends. Just as important, if a rush didn't yield a goal, a defenseman would have less chance of being tied up with a tug of the stick or a hold with the free hand as he scrambled to retreat to his own zone.

Go figure.

The Washington Capitals, who were tied for tops in the league with the Vancouver Canucks last year with 48 goals from the blue line, have plummeted to last with just one so far this year.

"I haven't noticed much difference (in defensemen jumping into the play)," Murray said. "We haven't altered our game. We still do the same things to get our defensemen involved in the attack.

"It's a matter of what your team needs and you need scoring from your defensemen."

Murray's schemes -- things like surprising the opposition in its own zone by having the Kings' defensemen jump down the boards to join in a cycle -- have helped make unlikely defensemen into offensive weapons. There's no better example than Modry, the 31-year-old who hadn't registered more than 19 points in an NHL season until last year when he blossomed with four goals and 38 assists, second on the team in helpers.

"When we lost Rob Blake (traded to Colorado at the trade deadline in 2001), everybody saw our (blue line scoring) going down," Murray said. "But Jaroslav Modry popped up and became an all-star. People didn't think Visnovsky could do it. Philippe Boucher played well when he was here. Aaron Miller was the sixth man in Colorado, but when he got here, he's stepped up.

"We try to confuse the opposition by cycling our defensemen down low and have them move across the blue line. You've got to do things to confuse the defensive team."

For the Kings, there's no confusion or rush to judgement. It's crystal clear that an active group of defensemen yields offensive dividends.

Chris Stevenson covers the NHL for the Ottawa Sun and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.