I think we all had some feelings going into yesterday’s game.
Perhaps a heat check, after wins over Montreal and Anaheim, and not just because of a sunny walk to the rink in Vegas. There’s no beating around the bush with those two wins – Montreal is eighth in its division while Anaheim is sixth. Both teams have a lot of young talent up front, but a lot of inexperience. On Game 7 of 7, the Vegas Golden Knights presented a different sort of test.
The feeling coming out of the wins over the Canadiens and Ducks, for me at least, was that a few things were perhaps set to fall into place. I get that the competition was lower, so you take it with a grain of salt, but the Kings were defensively sound while still creating their offensive opportunities, the penalty kill was excellent and
a number of players who might not have been themselves in the first four games of the season played their best game of the season in either Montreal or Anaheim. Those are things that should translate.
The hope was that good things could become trends, that chances would become goals, that the defensive execution and penalty-killing prowess would continue into Vegas. That was not the case last night.
Special teams was the dagger in the first period. Ultimately, of all the impressions from the Vegas game, it’s special teams that has to stand above.
I thought the start was pretty good, 5-on-5. Early on, the Kings really took the life out of what is usually a very loud building early. Could hear the chatter on the ice at times even from the high press box.
There seemed to be three turning points on special teams that could have changed the ending last night.
– First LAK Power Play
– 2 First-Period Penalty Kills
– Four-Minute Double Minor
The first Kings power play didn’t deliver much. It happens, but you could feel the air let out a little bit as it didn’t generate a lot of momentum. Then it was a power-play goal against. Then it was two. Suddenly, even when the only thing you’ve done wrong 5-on-5 was take penalties, you’re in a 2-0 hole. The Kings had 10 scoring chances for, compared to just four against during the first period. The 5-on-5 was fine, but special teams is boom or bust. Typical for Vegas, I suppose, and I write that as someone who left Monday night down a couple dollars.
Despite the first-period breakdowns, with the Kings trailing 3-0, they had a golden opportunity in the second to change the narrative, as Quinton Byfield took a stick to the face while the Kings were already up a man. Four seconds of 5-on-3, followed by 3:56 of 5-on-4. Get one there you’re back in it. Somehow get two and it’s a brand-new ballgame. The Kings didn’t convert.
Overall this season, the Kings rank 26th in the league in PP + PK. There have been some really strong moments for both units and some games that have been costly. Last night was the latter.
I agreed with Trevor Moore’s assessment following the game. I thought that on the penalty kill, the Kings did try and do the right things. If you look at the extended sequence preceding the first PPG against, not just the highlight on NHL.com, the Kings were aggressive in pressuring the puck. The thing with an aggressive penalty kill, though, is that when you pressure aggressively, you’re essentially daring the other team to beat you with a string of perfect passes. As you pressure aggressively, it leads to quick decisions. When it actually happens, and quick decisions become correct decisions, executed precisely, the PK unit gets stretched out. Case in point, Tomas Hertl’s goal. Early pressure was there, but Vegas beat it with puck movement. First, it was an in-zone breakaway that David Rittich turned aside. After that, I counted four situations in which the Kings pressured the puck but were beaten by the pass, including two through the seam. At that point, we’re nearly 40 seconds into the shift and the Kings sagged off. That gave the Golden Knights space to execute against tired legs and execute they did.
You could honestly say similar things on the second goal against. Lost faceoff, which set the Kings back, but they recovered and pressured aggressively right off the draw. Danault, Moore and Gavrikov each had a pressure. Vegas moved the puck, either with a pass or a deke and wound up scoring in a simpler fashion, with what was admittedly an excellent display of hand-eye coordination from both Hertl and Mark Stone. Plays like that, they happen. Penalty kills won’t be perfect, you have one or two fewer players, I get that. The first one was tougher to take, as the Kings simply got out-executed in that situation, as Jim Hiller laid out bluntly after the game.
While the penalty kill was the culprit in the first period, the power play took its lumps in the second.
The Kings had nearly six consecutive minutes of PP time and were not able to score. They did eventually get on the board through Warren Foegele, who I thought had his best game of the season, but the goal came 5-on-5, after the PP time had expired. Alex Turcotte had a great look, which hit the crossbar, while Foegele himself generated a good chance off the rush. Foegele isn’t usually on that unit, but he filled in for Byfield, who drew four of those six penalty minutes, losing a couple drops of blood in the process.
The power play is ultimately a dollars and cents game and the puck didn’t go into the net. And, from those six minutes, they had just three shots on goal, despite ten shot attempts. Turcotte’s won’t count as the former, as it found the iron, but that sequence was the third turning point opportunity of the game for the Kings on special teams. All three went the other way.
The Kings scored four power-play goals in their first three games of the season. They essentially scored five, with one in Boston coming a second after the PP had expired. Since the Ottawa game, though, they’ve been held off the scoresheet. There is an adjustment period, with Brandt Clarke and Alex Laferriere growing into new roles and the three holdovers – Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar – learning how the five-man unit works together. It’s looked different and it should get better. Clarke has shined as a distributor but hasn’t been the shooting threat that Drew Doughty offers, though I think he’s been more willing to use the shot over the last couple of games. Laferriere has been an excellent puck retriever, but his style is different than Viktor Arvidsson’s was, with Arvidsson sometimes serving as the primary facilitator from a different angle. Laferriere did create what was maybe the best chance that unit had, as he fed Adrian Kempe the puck through the top of the crease, but the play was in too tight to allow Kempe to elevate his shot. The Kings have largely looked at the three veterans to create and they have at times for sure, but last night in Vegas, it was that final seam pass that just didn’t connect, despite players switching spots and trying different things. Not a ton from in between the diamond either. Sometimes felt like the entire unit was around the perimeter. Work to be done, certainly.
All in all, last night is one game on October 22. Of the 22 days in October, 20 of them were spent at least partially away from home. It’s a bit grueling and you could certainly see a group that is starving for a home game. Tomorrow, they get to eat.
You could also see visible frustration after the game, though, from the players. I think frustration is a good thing, because it shows a dissatisfaction with not meeting the desired level, and it shows a desire to improve. It’s only a good thing though if it’s channeled the right way. There is a lot more this team can achieve this season and there are higher levels to get to, both special teams and beyond. The players know that and that’s why they’re frustrated. It’s about more than special teams, but I personally thought that was the biggest factor in yesterday’s game, even if the late goals were 5-on-5. The Kings dedicated time to working on the power play on Monday and I’d imagine there’s more to come there. Same goes for the kill. I’m not all that worried about the penalty kill. The Kings have four perfect PK games and three that they’ve allowed multiple PPG against. Maybe it’s naive, but I’ve seen it work, multiple times, so I believe that it can work.
At the end of the day though, as our own DTLAKingsFan likes to say, it’s 3-2-2 on a season-opening trip. If it puts it into any context, the Kings have had 16 roadtrips of seven games in franchise history. Just two saw them collect more than the eight points from this one.