Anyone who watched only the first 10 minutes of tonight’s game could be forgiven for thinking the Los Angeles Kings were the NHL’s best team.
Anyone who watched only the first 10 minutes of tonight’s game could be forgiven for thinking the Los Angeles Kings were the NHL’s best team.
After a dominant start in which they went up 2-0 in the first period, the Kings struggled to keep up that momentum, losing 4-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins and falling to 1-3-1 on the season and 0-2-0 at home.
The Kings struggled on special teams, allowing one power play goal and one shorthanded goal, the latter of which proved to be the game-winner, while going 0/2 on the power play themselves. It’s a frustrating continuation of a trend — the Kings’ 59 penalty minutes this season are third-most in the NHL, while their penalty-kill percentage sits in the bottom third of the league at 66.7%. Their power-play percentage of 20% is 17th.
After allowing that power-play goal to Evgeni Malkin in the second period, the Kings conceded the tying goal just 41 seconds later. While the game threatened to unravel at that point, the Kings responded with several good shifts and created a number of good opportunities for themselves. However, despite multiple point-blank looks at the net, they couldn’t get a single goal, with both Quinton Byfield and Adrian Kempe missing chances.
The Kings hit the post or crossbar three times during the game. Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs also played well, making several good stops among his 30 saves to earn second-star honors.
“You just got to find a way to put it in the back of the net,” Hiller said. “And give the goalie credit. Three posts, you know, we beat him on those. So three posts and then some really good saves by him where we had — we like to call them grade As when you’re that tight with the goaltender — and he beat us.”
“I really think the pucks are gonna start going in for us, and we’re gonna start feeling better,” Kings forward Trevor Moore added. “But, you know, at the same time, we got to bear down on our chances.”
Filip Hallander scored the shorthanded winner for Pittsburgh with just under 14 minutes remaining in the third period.
“It was a tough goal,” Kings center Phillip Danault said. “Obviously they got the winner right there. We kept pushing all game and it didn’t go in. So they take advantage, and they finally score.”
Interestingly, one of the Kings’ best chances in the remainder of the game also came shorthanded, when Alex Laferriere had a breakaway but was stonewalled by Silovs. Sidney Crosby, who uncharacteristically committed two penalties tonight, scored an empty-net goal with about 30 seconds left to seal the win.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar was a game-time decision and ultimately did not play due to a lower-body injury. Hiller said the team would continue to evaluate him and have more information in the morning.
The Kings next play on Saturday against the dangerous Carolina Hurricanes. While they acknowledge the frustrations with their struggles, they are trying to keep in perspective how much season they have left to go.
“We’ve shown that we can have really good periods, and then, for whatever reason, it gets away from us,” Moore said. “[The penalty kill] has got to be better, me especially. We just gotta put it all together. And we will. It’s still early in the year. Can’t panic yet, but we’ll be fine.”
They certainly have a lot of improvements they can make, but they boil down to making sure their play looks more like tonight’s first period and less like the last two.
Category: General Sports
