Los Angeles dropped two of the first three games of the new year in 2018, being outscored 8-6. The LA Kings fell to both Calgary as well as Nashville.
A new year held so many new hopes for the LA Kings and their loyal fan base. After going through a roller coaster of emotions in the first half, the Kings’ faithful had hoped their team would balance out and ride their hot streak into the playoffs. But as we all know, Hockey has a way of breaking your heart and toying with your emotions. After destroying a terrible Edmonton team to kick off the new year, the Kings faltered again.
The first loss is perhaps the most disappointing, losing to a team well behind them in the standings. Calgary is no bottom tier team, but the Kings absolutely should not be losing to them. The worst part of it all is that the Kings carried a sizable 2-0 lead before completely handing over the game. The second period was absolute mayhem for Los Angeles, allowing 4 unanswered goals.
The Calgary goals were well played by the Flames, but also due in large part to miscues by Los Angeles. The Kings made several costly turnovers that the Flames capitalized on, and put the game out of reach. Perhaps the only good part about this loss was that the Kings managed to maintain their excellent penalty kill ratio. The Kings are the best in the league in penalty kills, and they managed to kill off four more without a goal against Calgary.
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The loss against Nashville was slightly different from the one against Calgary. Nashville didn’t come out firing and would ultimately only have 20 shots on goal the whole game. The Predators simply had better execution and took their time waiting for plays to develop. They also managed to score on one of their 5 power play opportunities.
The most concerning part of these past two games has definitely been the performance of Jonathan Quick. In those two games, Quick had 61 shots on goal against him. He saved just 87 percent of those shots. That’s quite a bad couple of games for a guy that is one of the best goalies in the NHL. Look for him to either get a one game break, or hopefully bounce back against the Ducks after a week off.
The Silver Lining:
Despite their losses, the Kings did have a few bright spots in their losses:
-Tanner Pearson scored two goals and an assist on the two game slide.
-Adrian Kempe had a goal of his own.
-Anze Kopitar put up two more assists to bring his total to 27 on the year.
Next: Los Angeles Thrashes Edmonton
The Kings will be at home against a thinned out Anaheim Ducks team on Saturday night. The Ducks are 19-15-9 on the season, and have their own two game losing streak going. After that, the Kings will play host to the Sharks as well as the Penguins in the following week.