It’s starting to seem like the LA Kings are only going to play tight games in 2021.
Unfortunately, on Saturday night in St. Louis, they came out on the wrong end of a close match for the fourth time in five games. An empty-netter from Jaden Schwartz in the dying seconds gave the Blues a 4-2 victory over the Kings, dropping LA’s record to 1-2-2.
Here are three other takeaways from Saturday’s loss to the Blues.
Takeaway #1: Another slow start
Sluggish starts have become an early theme for the Kings this season.
TM on energy at the start: "I still think we can start better. We need one of those explosive starts we had at the end of last year."
— Rink Royalty (@RinkRoyalty) January 24, 2021
The Kings have allowed the first goal in each of their five games so far this season. They’ve been outscored 6-2 in the first period of games and outshot 54-39.
The Blues owned the first period on Saturday night. They outshot the Kings 13-5 and took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Torey Krug. LA really didn’t generate anything dangerous in the offensive zone and was fortunate to only be down a goal at the end of it.
After five games, it’s clear that this is a problem for this team. Based on Todd McLellan’s post-game comments, you can bet he’s going to make sure his team focuses on improving their starts moving forward. The Kings aren’t going to have much success this year if they find themselves chasing every game.