For the first time this season, the Los Angeles Kings dropped two games in a row in regulation as they fell 4-2 to Mikko Rantanen and the Colorado Avalanche. As I’ve mentioned numerous times, the Kings have been outstanding at responding with great performances after a loss and after the first 20 minutes of last night’s contest, it looked as if that was going to continue.
If you only watched the first period of the game, you were probably scratching your head at the fact that the Kings came up short. They came out with a lot of energy, which was something that was almost entirely non-existent in their game against the Calgary Flames on Monday night. The problem was, that aggressive, energetic style of play only lasted 20 minutes as the next two periods were controlled entirely by the Avalanche.
“They pushed and we didn’t do a very good job of handling that. I thought, for whatever reasons, once we got into the second period, we had a really tough time connecting on passes, turning pucks over because we just couldn’t get ourselves out of the d-zone,” said head coach Jim Hiller.
Colorado’s offense runs primarily through three players, and it was something the Kings couldn’t contain as Rantanen scored three of the four Avalanche goals. While Rantanen was able to find his looks, the Kings didn’t give up a whole lot of grade-A chances outside of that, even though the Avalanche had control of the puck for most of the game. The Kings didn’t generate but they didn’t have glaring defensive breakdowns either.
Speaking about not giving up many quality looks, the Kings also went 3/3 on the penalty kill not giving up a single shot on goal during any of the Avalanche power plays.
“It’s starting to click more, I think we’re starting to pressure a lot more. Against a top power play like that, I think we did a really good job at that,” said forward Adrian Kempe.
Inability To Get Pucks On Net Hurt Their Chances of Winning
Throughout the first 16 minutes of the game, the Kings had nine shots on goal. It took them 23:15 to register another shot after that. Not a single puck was put on net by the Kings in the second period and they only managed six in the third to bring their total shot count to 15.
Avalanche goaltender Alexander Georgiev played the easiest two periods of his life as the Kings quite literally generated nothing after the first period. They barely touched the puck and when they did they made things overly complicated. After a simple first period of hockey where they got the puck in deep and forechecked hard to win those battles, it all went completely out the window for the next 40 minutes. Too many cute passes in the neutral zone led to multiple turnovers making it hard for them to even advance the puck over the red line, and when they had the chance to get a quick shot on net, someone always opted to make that extra pass which led to nothing but the Avalanche re-claiming possession.
Related: LA Kings Game Notes: Outworked in 2-1 Loss to Flames
Very rarely is a team going to win games when the most amount of shots they are putting up is 15, but there’s something that makes this even more disappointing for the Kings. Fifteen shots are brutal but to only test Georgiev that little is a massive missed opportunity. He has the worst save percentage by any goalie in the NHL who has played over four games this season. If there was any game where getting pucks to the net was the most important key to success it was this one. They could have peppered a goalie who has struggled tremendously this season but instead, they hurt themselves by barely making Georgiev work. They scored two goals on nine shots, all they needed to do was continue to get shots on net but they just couldn’t figure it out.
12-11-9 Line Was The Only One Producing
Obviously, offensive production and creating chances wasn’t something the Kings did a lot of last night. That being said, the offense that was created, came from one line.
Last game against the Calgary Flames where they were severely outplayed, Hiller decided to promote Trevor Moore up to the first line with Anze Kopitar and Kempe in hopes of creating a spark. That line ended up being the most effective during the latter half of that game.
That top line for the Kings has seen a variety of wingers on the left side over the course of 18 games. Moore has played with Kopitar and Kempe in previous seasons and after a little bit of a spark was ignited in Calgary, Hiller opted to run with the trio again.
“He (Moore) always brings energy, obviously really good player, can shoot the puck, can pass the puck, so it was fun playing with him […] it was good to have him back on the line,” said Kempe.
Right off the bat that line went to work. Thirty-two seconds in, Kopitar fed the puck out to Moore who quickly sent it down low to Kempe who was initially stopped on his quick release. Kempe followed his shot and scored on his second effort opportunity giving the Kings the early momentum.
Fifteen minutes later it was the same three players who landed on the scoresheet for the Kings’ second and last goal of the evening. Moore collected the puck on the half-wall on the left-hand side before chipping it out the Kopitar in the middle who then found Kempe all alone for an easy back-door tap-in. Kempe potted his second of the night and seventh of the season.
Out of the four Kings lines, 12-11-9 was the only one to have a Corsi for percentage (CF%) and Fenwick (FF) above 50%, meaning they were the only line to create more shots and opportunities for, than allow against them. They led all lines in time on ice with 13:04 and took the most faceoffs in all three zones. They were the only line that was going and their ice time and production levels proved just that.
A three-game homestand is up next for the Kings. They will host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, the Buffalo Sabres next Wednesday (Nov. 20), and the Seattle Kraken the following Saturday (Nov. 23). All three opponents are very beatable for the Kings and if they get back to their simple, fast game and stick with it for all three periods, there is no reason why they can’t pick up six points.
