Los Angeles Kings: The Team’s Tough Month Continues
By Brook Smith
The LA Kings fell to the Sharks over the weekend, marking their third loss of November. The offense and defense have both struggled, leading to poor results.
After getting off to one of the best starts in franchise history, the Kings have gotten off to a horrible start in November. Through the first five games of the month, the Kings have only walked away with two wins. The most recent win of the month came in an overtime thriller against Anaheim early last week. In the losses, the Kings have been hit hard. They’ve been outscored 11 to 6, mostly in part to the beating they took against Tampa Bay.
The good news is that aside from the Tampa Bay loss, the team has hung in there pretty well. The other two losses of the month were only by a 1 point margin, so it’s not as if they’re being blown out. Most recently, they lost to rival San Jose in a game that saw Jonathan Quick save 31 shots on goal. Unfortunately Dustin Brown was the only one able to strike pay dirt, with his eighth goal of the season.
There is good news in looking ahead, as the Kings have a fairly soft schedule over the course of November. They will play Vancouver on Tuesday night, a team that has been average at best. Vancouver is 8-7-2, and they have lost 5 of their last 7 games. The Canucks have also scored 1 goal or less on five different occasions this year, leading to just 43 goals for them. That would put them near the bottom of the league, ranking 26th in scores.
After the Canucks, the Kings will face off against Boston on Thursday. The defeated the Bruins last month 2-1, in a game that went into overtime. The Bruins are just 6-6-4 on the year thus far. The team will then travel to Florida to play the Panthers, another struggling team. Florida has out together a dismal record of 5-9-2, despite allowing the third least goals against them.
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Los Angeles really only has two decent challenges this month, the first of which will come against Las Vegas. This will be the first time the two teams meet, and the Golden Knights have been a pleasant surprise to fans around the league. They are currently 10-5-1, sitting just behind the Kings in the Pacific Division. The next challenge fir LA will be on the last day of the month, where they travel to the nation’s capitol. Washington has been dominant as ever, ranking in the top ten in goals allowed. As of today, the Capitals are 10-7-1 in 2017.
Bright Spots:
- Los Angeles ranks in the top 10 for power play kill-off percentages for the month of November
- Anze Kopitar ranks in the top 15 in total points, racking up a goal and 6 assists in November.
- Jonathan Quick still ranks in the top 8 goalies in the league, allowing just 2.27 goals against average. This despite the rocky month he has endured so far.