LA Kings vs. Wild: Three takeaways in 5-3 loss against Wild

Takeaway #2: The LA Kings special teams are special.

Not a lot of people gave this team much of a chance to have a lot of success this season, but here they are so far with 8 points and showing much improvement over last season. A big reason for this is the Kings have been outstanding in the special teams department.

After falling behind 3-0, the Kings scored twice on the power play to get within one goal at that point. Overall they were 2-for-7 Thursday night with the man advantage. Heading into the game, they were at 22.2 percent, sitting in 12th place in the NHL in power-play percentage. Not bad for a team that had been known in previous seasons for having scoring problems.

For as good as the power-play units have been this season, the penalty killing has been even better. Thursday night, they killed all four of Minnesota’s power plays – marking the third straight game the Kings were perfect on the penalty kill.

Going into Thursday night’s game, the team sat at seventh in the league with an 87.5 percent success rate – that number will now improve. Continued strong special teams play could go a long way in determining if this LA Kings team makes the playoffs this season.