The second half of January was the first time the Los Angeles Kings struggled for an extended amount of time this season, losing eight of the 13 games they played that month. It was their inability to score goals and finish on the chances they did create that led to the piling up of losses. The Kings didn’t score more than two goals in any game they lost during January.
As soon as February hit, the Kings handed the Cup-contending Carolina Hurricanes a 4-2 loss on the road, scoring four goals for just the second time in 13 games. The trend continued, and they went on to score 12 goals in the next three games before the NHL went on a 10-day break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Coming straight out of the break, while they weren’t flawless, the Kings showed a bunch of positives in their next two games, including success at finding the back of the net. They knocked off the Utah Hockey Club and Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights, scoring five goals in each of the two games.
What seemed to be the start of some consistent scoring and not banking on exceptional defensive play to win games came to an immediate halt. Since their win over the Golden Knights, the Kings have played five games. They have lost all five of those games and are currently riding their worst losing streak of the season. To nobody’s surprise, in each of those five games, the Kings scored two or fewer goals. Do you see the trends and similarities between both of the Kings’ mini-slumps?
Is Offense Being Sacrificed to Remain Defensively Sound?
Obviously, scoring goals is how you win games, and most of the time, if you can’t score more than twice in a game, you aren’t going to win. For the Kings, not scoring a ton of goals is something they are okay with and something they have been okay with for years. That’s because they pride themselves on shutting things down and trying to be “perfect” on defense so that scoring more than a couple of goals a game isn’t needed to win. The problem is that the minute that strong defensive presence lets up, everything comes crashing down.
Even when the Kings are in the offensive zone, it’s clear that finding different ways to generate offense isn’t something that’s focused on a lot. The way this team produces chances is very one-dimensional. It’s loads of perimeter play and working the puck along the outside before shots are taken from the point. The Kings’ whole offensive strategy is to shoot from the point while the forwards get in front of the net in hopes of a screen, deflection, or rebound. It can be an effective way to get pucks to the net; it just can’t be the only way all the time. There have been countless times when teams have undoubtedly recognized how the Kings like to run their offense and have made an extra effort to get in those shooting lanes and disrupt the middle of the ice with active sticks.
We have seen glimpses of goals and chances scored off the rush, but you would think with the amount of speed the Kings possess that their transition game and ability to use that speed to their advantage off the rush would be more present.
The Kings play a “defense first” system that is okay with squandering any sort of offense as long as the players on the ice remain responsible. Protect the house, and worry about anything else later. With the talent and offensive execution that is present in the league, teams with high-end talent are going to be able to break through the defense one way or another, so there needs to be more of a balance. Just take a look at how the Kings have failed to make it past the Edmonton Oilers and the duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in round one for three straight seasons. The Kings allowed four or more goals in four of the five games they played against the Oilers in round one last season, and that was still while the Kings were even more focused on their defensive structure than they are this season, running a 1-3-1.
Defense is key; don’t get me wrong, but sacrificing offense for it isn’t sustainable in today’s NHL. Of the Kings’ 31 wins this season, 19 have come when they have scored four or more goals in a game. Of the Kings’ 29 losses this season (including overtime and shootouts), 27 have come when the Kings have failed to score more than two goals in a game. The Kings’ sound defensive play has gone a long way and has played a key part in the record that they have but no matter how good they are defensively, they need to be able to score goals, and they have proven to be successful when they do, it’s just that they aren’t doing it consistently at all. The results aren’t pretty when the Kings are scoring two or fewer goals in a game.
Related: Grading the Kings’ Trade for Andrei Kuzmenko
The big question was, what was general manager Rob Blake going to do to help boost this team’s ability to score goals? But it begs a follow-up question: Is adding a goal-scoring forward really going to do anything when the system isn’t built to score goals?
There was lots of chatter on the Kings being heavily interested in Mikko Rantanen because he would have provided a significant improvement to the team’s offensive capabilities, but how would he have fit with the Kings? Rantanen isn’t a responsible defensive player, he takes risks and chances that help fuel his offensive game. He’s not known for his ability to break up plays, be in the right position in the defensive zone, or back-check hard, but teams are okay with that because he makes it count on the other side of the ice. He’s a 100-point player, but would he really be given the freedom to play like a 100-point player with the Kings?
No one needs to worry about that anymore because Rantanen signed with the Dallas Stars, and Blake and the Kings opted to go the much cheaper route. Honestly, with how the market was looking and what some players were costing, this was almost the perfect move for Blake to make. The Kings acquired Andrei Kuzmenko from the Philadelphia Flyers instead. The former 39-goal scorer has struggled since his rookie season, but he’s a right-shot forward who scores goals. For Kuzmenko, it’s the same sort of story. He isn’t a reliable player defensively, so how will that affect how he fits into the Kings’ system? Forcing Kuzmenko to play that way isn’t going to work, either. We saw how that panned out for him when he played under Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet, another coach who focuses on defense first. Kuzmenko went from scoring a majority of those 39 goals under Bruce Boudreau to scoring just eight in 43 games the next season under Tocchet.
If the Kings decide to operate the same way and not allow Kuzmenko the freedom to be the creative, nifty forward that he is, this move will be all for nothing. If he is going to score goals, which is something this team struggles to do, let him be the player that just scores goals. If he’s not contributing offensively and is also a defensive liability, then anything is fair game.
It needs to be mentioned because we have seen the Kings’ unwillingness to allow some players that freedom and leniency to take risks to make a play because it could lead to a defensive breakdown if it doesn’t go as planned. Can you guess who I am referencing here?
I can’t help but think about Brandt Clarke and his situation and the little room for error he is given. How many times do we have to talk about Clarke and the skill set he brings offensively that no other Kings defenseman has? The way he creates space along the blue line, that spin-o-rama pass he made to Anze Kopitar at the start of the season, just his vision and creativity when he has the puck on his stick, or how he leads all Kings defensemen in points despite being scratched a whole bunch as of late. These are just little tidbits of what Clarke can do when he’s given the freedom to play “his game.”
The glimpses he has shown in just his first full season in the NHL only speak to how much better he can be as he continues to develop. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been given free rein to be the player he is, which led to his production tapering off halfway through the season. Combine that with some of his defensive struggles, and the result was Clarke sitting in the press box. Not only that, but Clarke being scratched repeatedly led to a bunch of trade rumors as well.
Obviously, Clarke being a defenseman subjects him to more scrutiny about his defensive game than Kuzmenko or Rantanen would receive, but it’s certainly interesting to think about why Rantanen reportedly was not willing to sign an extension with the Kings.
Is There Too Much Veteran Bias?
Furthermore, veterans seem to receive more leeway, even when they’re dragging the team, and we see it in multiple instances. Clarke went from an elevated role and quarterbacking the first power-play unit at the start of the season to now being a seventh defenseman, sometimes eighth defenseman, who plays around 13 minutes when he’s in the lineup and isn’t on any of the power-play units. This is all while Joel Edmundson and Drew Doughty are playing 20-plus minutes a night, getting torched as a pairing, giving up turnover after turnover, as well as being hemmed in a lot of the time.
Doughty is an elite defenseman and has carried the Kings’ defensive group for over a decade, but immediately jumping back to playing 20-plus minutes a night after returning from injury can’t happen. The defensive corps held up just fine without Doughty, so what was the rush to get him playing those kinds of minutes right away? Those first six games weren’t that great for Doughty, who clearly needed some time getting back to the speed and pace of the NHL, yet he led all Kings defensemen in time on ice for almost all of those games.
Think about any time Alex Laferriere or Alex Turcotte takes a questionable penalty or is having a rough period. They are almost always glued to the bench for an extended amount of time after that. Accountability is important, and holding players accountable when they make bad decisions is important, but shouldn’t that be the same for everyone across the board? Why is it that when Trevor Lewis does the same thing, he is out there for his next shift?
Not to mention the recurring decision to play Lewis every game when it’s clear he’s largely unimpactful and is taking a spot away from someone like Andre Lee or Samuel Helenius. Now, with Kuzmenko on the roster and no one being traded, there is one less spot. It’s going to be interesting to see if Lewis still somehow manages to remain in the lineup, especially with Blake saying that Helenius will be a key player for the Kings down the stretch.
The Kings, for the most part this season, have been pretty good as they sit in third place in the Pacific Division, but the inconsistent offense and veteran bias have played a key part in some of their struggles this season, especially this five-game losing streak. The once comfortable grip the Kings had on third place in the Pacific has now loosened quite a bit with both the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames knocking on the doorstep.
