It was just one of those nights for the Los Angeles Kings and one that we hadn’t seen in a while. Nothing went right in all aspects of the game. It was an outlier performance and one they aren’t used to delivering. Known as the best defensive team in the league this season, they sure didn’t look like it as they were dismantled by the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1.
“We just weren’t good enough that’s the bottom line,” captain Anze Kopitar said. “Top to bottom, left to right, the game was not there.”
It was the first time since the Kings’ 7-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 25 that they allowed five goals in a game. Goals are hard to come by when playing against this stingy Kings group, but it was just too easy for the Penguins as the Kings were one step behind all night.
The Kings had won nine straight games at home heading into last night’s matchup, with a chance to extend it to 10 all while honoring the Los Angeles Fire Department. They were back at Crypto.com Arena after a five-game road trip and most importantly they were playing for something; playing for the city of Los Angeles which has gone through unthinkable struggles over the past couple of weeks. Simply put, the Kings didn’t show up and you could chalk it up as one of their worst performances of the season.
“Disappointing, on a night like tonight, I can probably count maybe only five times I’ve been disappointed in our team this season, tonight is one, maybe the most,” said head coach Jim Hiller.
Offensive Struggles Continued
Putting the puck in the net has been one of the biggest challenges for the Kings in the past few games. Outside of their game in Vancouver against a struggling Canucks team, the Kings have been held to two or less goals in their last six games.
As a result of their scoring problems, the Kings have lost four of the last five. The difference in last night’s game was that they weren’t dangerous in the offensive zone. At least in their other recent losses, they were generating quality chances and the effort was there. Crappy puck luck and stellar goaltending stood in their way but against the Penguins they rarely made it difficult for them to defend. Most of what Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic dealt with were routine saves.
The biggest difference in these past few games has been the lack of a net-front presence, and it’s one of the biggest contributors to the low production. The Kings have found lots of success crashing the net and capitalizing on greasy rebounds, deflections, and screens. The lack of that in recent games has made it relatively easy for opposing goaltenders to track the puck. Pucks and bodies to the net are the two things the Kings need to get back to doing to help bring themselves out of this scoring rut.
“It’s not clicking so to speak,” Kopitar said. “When you’re in a stretch like this when you’re not scoring a whole lot of goals it’s getting back to the meat and potatoes really. Throw pucks to the net, go there, get a couple ugly ones and I think for the most part when you start shooting the puck a little bit more you tend to create off those shots and make the so-called pretty plays, but yeah simplify and go from there.”
Power Play Improving Slightly
As we’ve talked about numerous times, the Kings’ power play this season has been nothing short of atrocious. Through 44 games, it ranks the fourth worst in the NHL operating at just 16.5%. Out of the bottom eight power plays in the league, only one other team is in a playoff spot. The bottom line is that it’s been unacceptable, especially for a team that sits in third place in the Pacific Division.
That being said, it has slowly improved over the past few games, ironically during one of the worst offensive stretches for the Kings this season. After going 2/24 on the power play before playing the Canucks last Thursday, the Kings have now scored a power-play goal in each of their last three games.
Although the goal against the Canucks came seconds after forward Kevin Fiala sprung out of the box and on an odd-man rush and the goal last night came during a 5-on-3, it’s still a step in the right direction and the Kings will take anything they can get right now when it comes to capitalizing on the power play.
With the Kings struggling to produce offensively, the power play stringing a few together and starting to heat up could not come at a better time.
Tough Stretch for Rittich
Goaltending hasn’t been a concern for the Kings this season with Darcy Kuemper providing everything you could ask for from a starting goaltender. David Rittich has been solid for the most part as well, especially when they needed him most while Kuemper was out with an injury earlier on in the season.
As of late though, it’s been a rough go for Rittich who has lost the last four of his five starts. He’s not getting in the net very often either as he’s only played five games since Dec. 12. In each of his last five starts, Rittich hasn’t finished a game with a save percentage above .900 and he’s let in 16 goals.
The worst part is, that the team doesn’t help him out at the other end of the ice and they seem to be even worse offensively when he’s playing. In all four of Rittich’s losses in his last five starts, the Kings have only mustered up one goal in each game. In the one game where the Kings scored more than one goal, Rittich won. You are not going to win games in the NHL scoring one goal a game and unfortunately for Rittich, those are the type of offensive performances he has had to deal with.
Obviously, as the numbers show, Rittich hasn’t been a brick wall. There’s no doubt a couple of weak ones get past him every so often but at the end of the day he is the backup goaltender. If anything, the Kings should have stronger performances altogether when he is in net. And when nothing is going right for the team and Rittich is giving up a couple of questionable goals, a 5-1 beatdown is what happens.
Related: Kings’ Youth Blossom Alongside Kopitar and Kempe
The Kings are going to want to forget everything about this one and move on. An entirely different team needs to show up Wednesday, preferably the defensively sound Kings as they welcome in the defending Cup champs the Florida Panthers, a team that has no trouble finding the back of the net.
