The Los Angeles Kings have been playing their best hockey for the past few weeks and it continued on Saturday (Dec. 7), as they defeated the league-leading Minnesota Wild 4-1, for their fifth consecutive win.
It wasn’t too long ago when we were talking about the Kings’ inability to provide back-to-back strong performances but as of late, that’s no longer the case. Not only have the Kings provided some well-needed consistency, but they have also not had a problem handing losses to a few of the NHL’s “big dogs”. With statement wins over the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars, and Minnesota Wild twice in the past month, the Kings are quickly morphing into a group that teams will be worried about playing.
“We’re a really solid team […] when I say that, that’s a real compliment to our players. Solid top to bottom,” said head coach Jim Hiller postgame.
It’s almost as if this team enjoys playing these types of teams. It’s a mindset they have where they know they need to be at their best and be ready to be in go mode for a full 60 minutes.
“We like the challenge of playing against top teams, you have to be at your best (and) you need everybody, so those are fun as a group and good measuring sticks,” goaltender Darcy Kuemper said. “When we play against those teams we feel like we’ve got a lot to prove and I think we did a great job with it.”
Defense Wins Games for the Kings
Defense has always been something this franchise has taken pride in. This season, even after switching from the 1-3-1 in hopes to create more offense, it seems to have bolstered their success on the opposite side of the puck. It’s closing the gap at the blue line, having the forwards angle players to the boards, getting sticks and bodies in front of shooting lanes, and winning those loose puck battles in their own end. This defensive group’s performance this season is even more remarkable considering the fact that Drew Doughty, who eats up the most minutes, has been out since the start of the season.
“It’s a willingness to check, it’s a willingness to make that a priority up and down the lineup,” Hiller said. “It’s a real commitment […] it’s not one or two or three or four, that takes everybody.”
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They defend in layers and all of that was on display against the Wild. It allowed them to limit the best team in the league to 23 shots on goal and only one goal, which came in the last minute with an extra attacker.
They only gave up four high-danger chances all game at 5-on-5 and only gave up one of those in the first 40 minutes. They stopped the NHL’s leading point-getter, Kirill Kaprizov, from appearing on the scoresheet.
Important Game for a Few Kings
First and foremost, captain Anze Kopitar skated in his 1,400 NHL game. He is the fourth active player to reach that milestone and the fifth player in NHL history to play 1,400-plus games with one team.
As we know, Kopitar doesn’t age and at 37 years old, he still remains the Kings’ best player, leading the team in points with 31. You would be silly to think that he wasn’t getting on the scoresheet in last night’s game. With 43 seconds left in the first, he found Adrian Kempe driving to the net to open the scoring.
We have talked about Alex Laferriere so much this season and for good reason. He continues to impress, get better, and most importantly find the back of the net. With his goal last night, Laferriere tied his career high in goals with 12. To see that much improvement in such little time is nothing short of remarkable. It seems as if the Kings possibly found a diamond in the rough with their third-round pick in 2020.
“It’s going in right now which is the most important thing but, yeah, I mean, I love to shoot the puck […] that’s one thing that I try to focus a lot on is getting pucks to the net,” said Laferriere.
Kuemper returned from injury and played his first game since Nov. 13. Although the defensive group did a great job at limiting his workload against the Wild, with the saves he did make, especially the few point-blank ones in the first period, it didn’t look like he had missed a beat. Stopping 22 of 23 shots, Kuemper finished with a .957 save percentage and was only 1:13 from registering his second shutout of the season. With a goaltending tandem that was looked at to be one of the potential downfalls of this Kings team, both Kuemper and David Rittich have been better than expected.
Kings’ Power Play Gets a Shake-Up
It’s good to see Hiller not be afraid of trying new things and switching things up, especially on the power play which has been more than awful this season. Last night, the changes came up big as the Kings converted on the power play to give them a 2-0 lead. The second unit featured Laferriere, Jordan Spence, Alex Turccote, Phillip Danault, and Kevin Fiala who played on both units. Fiala ended up picking up an assist on Laferriere’s power-play goal.
“We had a plan to have Kevin play on both units tonight. He started on that unit (second one) and I thought he was really good, and that gave us a little more danger on the flanks with him and Laf together,” said Hiller.
The Kings are terrific at home, now 10-2-1. The way they play at Crypto.com Arena will need to translate on the road as they embark on a seven-game road trip. Away from home, they haven’t found the same amount of success, only 6-6-2 on the season. The Kings head to New York to take on the Islanders on Tuesday (Dec. 10).
