LA Kings: A Recap of the 2017 Portion of the Season
By Brook Smith
The LA Kings fly to Edmonton tonight to face off against the Oilers in their first game of 2018. Looking back, the Kings had decent 2017 portion of their season.
The LA Kings finished out 2017 in style, defeating the Canucks 4-3 on the 30th of December. That win would cap off a wild first part of their season. Los Angeles has seen some ugly losses right along side some amazing winning streaks. The Kings will start January with a record of 23-11-5 through 39 games played. That record puts them just 3 points behind the Las Vegas Knights.
To recap the exhilarating roller coast
er of the Los Angeles Kings season, you could start with the first full week of the season. The Kings defeated Philadelphia via shut out in the full return of Jonathan Quick. That game was followed by a blowout of the rival San Jose. The Kings would go on to win 9 out of the 12 games played in the first month.
Unfortunately, November brought much different results. With the eyes of the sports shifting from Dodgers and their World Series defeat, the Kings flinched. Suddenly, a team that had looked so promising to start off the year suddenly lost all hockey knowledge and skill in one fell swoop. They went through a stretch where they lost 7 games out 8, and had no hope it sight. The good news it that they managed to finish up the month strong. The Kings managed to defeat two very good teams on their own ice.
December gave LA fans much more hope of a bright future for the Kings. They took 8 games out of the 13 played, and took down a few of the toughest teams in the league. After an inauspicious November, Kings fans everywhere would have rejoiced in half as many wins. So what has gotten them this far?
Defense and offense is the short answer. Obviously, there is so much more than that goes into a team win. But perhaps that is just what they needed. Going back to the basics is what has really mattered to the team thus far, resulting in much more success. Jonathan Quick is one of the best goals in the league, and he’s been proving that all year. Quick is finally healthy and he has given up the sixth least goals against average in the league. Kopitar seems to be back as well. He’s scored 17 goals and put up 23 assists through the first 39 games played. They’re playing great defense and scoring goals, all of the ingredients for a winning season.