It’s almost inevitable that the Los Angeles Kings will respond after a loss. The Kings have yet to drop two games in a row at home this season and the trend continued as they held on to send the Seattle Kraken home with a 2-1 win.
Adrian Kempe remained as consistent as ever, picking up his team-leading 10th goal of the season. Also, a struggling Quinton Byfield who has remained persistent, was also able to find the back of the net.
Kings’ Starts Seem to Impact Outcome
Everyone knows how important it is to start the game strong and build momentum from the get-go. For the Kings, the way they start games seems to determine the rest of it most of the time. We know what kind of team has shown up after the first few minutes. Yesterday (Nov. 23), it was an aggressive, fast-paced start from the Kings that saw them turn pucks over, get it in deep, and cause chaos around the crease.
Head coach Jim Hiller said before the game that he wanted to see some “Intensity at their net-front,” and it was something the Kings remained persistent at for the majority of the game.
The Kings had four quick shots in the first three minutes of the game and did not allow the Kraken to register their first shot of the afternoon till 14:49 left in the first period.
That start died out for the rest of the first period, but it came back to start the second and allowed the Kings to take a 2-0 lead just over six minutes into period two.
Consistency From Rittich
Injuries have affected this group in multiple ways so far this season, and a persistent one has been the injury of starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper. With Kuemper going down twice now, David Rittich has had to step up to the plate and be that solid presence in the net for this team for the time being.
Rittich has started the last three games and has only given up one goal in each of them. He hasn’t had a tremendous amount of action, only facing an average of 19 shots in these last three games. It’s something that can be attributed to the way the Kings defend in their own end. They don’t give up much in terms of shots, and their ability to help out their goaltenders and not leave them out to dry has been a positive throughout the season. While Rittich isn’t facing loads of work, the shots he does have to track down are quality chances a lot of the time.
Consistency and reliability are two words Rittich has brought to this team over this three-game homestand. He has stopped 54 out of 57 shots, he has a .947 save percentage as well as a 1.01 goals-against average, and his expected goals against are at 5.24 while he’s only let in three. Not only that, but as I mentioned earlier, quality, grade-A chances have also been something he has done a tremendous job dealing with. Out of the 13 high-danger shots he has faced, Rittich has stopped 12 of them.
“Ritter’s obviously stepped up the last couple games, kept us in,” said Byfield. “In the third, there was a lot of big saves he made […] really happy for him and how he’s playing right now.”
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He’s coming up big at the right times and it’s a big reason why the Kings not only were able to go 2-1-0 but also not have given up a single goal at 5-on-5.
Kings’ Special Teams Perfect
It’s not often we talk about how good the special teams are especially with the way the power play has gone for the Kings this season. The penalty kill, on the other hand, has done relatively well, but both units were perfect against the Kraken. The Kings went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 1-for-1 on the power play.
The five-forward power-play unit finally cashed in. What was even more surprising was that it was Byfield who was the one to finish, a player who has struggled immensely at finding the back of the net only with three goals on the season. Their only chance was executed to the tee, something that hasn’t been easy to come by. Byfield finished a beautiful one-timer that was placed perfectly off a Kevin Fiala feed.
“Sometimes it goes in, sometimes not, you know? I think the last few games we were working good on the power play […] hopefully this one opens the gate a little bit in the future,” said Fiala.
The Kings only gave up two shots on the penalty kill. It wasn’t even the way they defended in their own zone on the penalty kill that allowed them to be so successful, but it was their ability to not even allow the Kraken the chance at setting up. A King was there every time to disrupt the play, and their aggressiveness paid off so much so that Warren Foegele and Byfield ended up with a shorthanded 2-on-0 during one of the Kraken power plays.
Special teams have one of the biggest effects on a game and the Kings were perfect on them.
“In the end, we needed that one (the power-play goal) […] those are big differences in the hockey game when you can get one. Now flip it on its head and our penalty kill was really good tonight, too, so it kind of goes hand in hand. You got to win the 5-on-5 game and you got to win the special teams game, and you do both of those you win,” said Hiller.
The Kings’ home stand is over but they won’t be leaving the state of California just yet. They’re set take a trip up north to SAP Center in San Jose to face the Sharks on Monday (Nov. 25) for the third time this season.
