The Los Angeles Kings got off to a slow start in the regular season's first two weeks this fall. Head coach Jim Hiller and the Kings are riding a four-game losing streak after losing two games in overtime or a shootout this past week in Week 2 of the regular season.
Jim Hiller and the Los Angeles Kings looking to snap a four-game losing streak vs. St Louis early this week on the road
This upcoming week, Hiller and the Kings are hitting the road for a difficult five-game Western Conference road trip that starts against a St. Louis Blues team that just beat the Dallas Stars by multiple goals on home ice this past weekend in Missouri.
The Kings need more consistent 60-minute efforts on both ends of the ice, and better goaltender productivity for the upcoming five-game road trip for this team to find more success in the win column early this regular season.
Here are two big questions for the Kings going into the opener of the upcoming Western Conference road trip this week on Tuesday night (Oct. 21) against the Blues.
Missed opportunities in high-danger scoring areas offensively in front of the net
In the Kings past four games in the past week and a half, every contest saw LA have either a multi-goal comeback or blow a multi-goal lead that sent a game into overtime or a shootout. The Kings are too chaotic on both ends of the ice right now.
Hiller and the Kings have lost two games by a margin of no more than two goals early this regular season when the team had at least a one goal lead in the game's final 25 minutes late in the second period.
Missed opportunities and costly discipline issues have been two of the bigger issues that prevented the Kings from winning more games in early-to-mid October early this regular season.
"You’ve just got to find a way to put it in the back of the net and again, give the goalie credit. Three posts, we beat him on those, so three posts and then some really good saves by him where we had what we like to call him Grade-A’s when you’re kind of that tight with the goaltender, and he beat us."Jim Hiller
The Kings rank third in the Western Conference in high-danger scoring chances. There is more meat left on the bone for the KIngs in the offensive zone early this regular season.
Where does Alex Laferriere fit?
Due to the lower-body injury that kept Kopitar out of the past couple of games for the Kings this past week against the Hurricanes and Penguins, Hiller tried out Alex Laferriere as the first-line center against Carolina early in the game. I can't blame Hiller and the Kings for struggling to find an answer when you lose the top-line center for the forward core this early in the fall in the regular season.
"Well, we were down, we didn’t have a lot going on, I didn’t think. I’ve had it in my mind and I would keep it in my mind once Kopi went out, for sure. We didn’t want to start that way, see how things settled, but we got into a situation where we needed a spark and when I say we, maybe some of those players needed a spark too, the individual players."Hiller
Laferriere has the lowest on-ice expected goals percentage playing at the center position of any Kings forward early this regular season (per Natural Stat Trick).
It worked much better when the Kings put Quinton Byfield on the first line centering Kempe and Kevin Fiala in the second half of the game in the second and third period vs. Carolina during the three-goal comeback on the scoreboard.
Laferriere's line had the lowest scoring chances for percentage of any forward line when he was playing on the top line with Kuzmenko and Kempe against the Hurricanes this past weekend.