LA Kings: Team report cards after the first ten games
With the LA Kings ten games into the 2021 season, how do the team’s grades look?
With the 2021 season nearly twenty percent complete, it’s time for the LA Kings report card at the end of the proverbial first marking period. The team entered this season knowing they would begin to phase younger prospects into the lineup, and given how they ended the previous season, there was optimism the Kings would be improved.
Adding to the optimism was the change in the playoff format, which has the top four teams in each division qualifying instead of the top eight teams based on points in each conference.
The season started with two heartbreaking overtime losses and only one win in the four games. Two wins in the following three games would give the fanbase reason to believe that maybe “the plan” would eventually work, and the team may just be starting to emerge from its rebuild. The LA Kings’ eighth game of the season against the Minnesota Wild would prove to be their most pivotal game, and not for a good reason.
Going into that game, the Kings found out Andreas Athanasiou and Blake Lizotte would be entering the covid protocol and therefore ineligible to play. Losing Athanasiou especially hurt. The speed he has brought really seems to be a catalyst for the team’s offense.
If this weren’t disastrous enough, the LA Kings would leave this game without two major pieces of their defense corps. In the second period, right defenseman Matt Roy would leave the game in the second period after being boarded by the Wild’s Kevin Fiala and would not return. In the third period, fellow right defenseman Sean Walker was hit in the face by a Matt Dumba slapshot, and like Roy, he would leave the game and not return. We now know both Roy and Walker will miss multiple weeks because of these injuries.
Their ninth and tenth games of this season have certainly not been highlights for the LA Kings. On Tuesday night, they lost by a score of 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks. While the scoreboard would indicate a close game, they were badly outplayed their crosstown rival. Friday night, the Kings were blown out by the Vegas Golden Knights to close out the first ten game period of their season.
With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at the report card. The report card is broken down into four categories: offense, defense, goaltending, and special teams.
Category number one: LA Kings Offense.
Grade: C
The good news is there is actually some improvement in this category from years past. The bad news is that it isn’t enough. The Kings have two games this season where they have scored four or more goals, but they also have five games where they have scored two goals or less. All told, they have scored 28 goals in ten games for an average of 2.8 goals per game.
As usual, Anze Kopitar leads the team in scoring with one goal and twelve assists for thirteen points. Kopitar’s twelve assists have him tied for fourth in the NHL with Nathan MacKinnon, which is even more impressive when taking into account the Kings do not generate a lot of scoring chances.
Former team captain Dustin Brown leads the team in goals scored with four (all on the power play), with that fourth goal coming in the team’s tenth game on Friday night. The fact that the LA Kings leading goal scorer has only four goals highlights a glaring obvious need to generate more offense.
They actually started this season at least looking like a faster team that was more offensively engaged, but the speed and the ability to break out of their zone and establish themselves in the opponent’s zone has taken a sharp decline. This must be fixed very soon, or it’s going to be a disappointing season once again.
Category two: LA Kings Defense.
Grade: D
The defense right now is an even bigger problem than the offense. Five times this season, the LA Kings have given up four or more goals this season. On a team that does not score a lot of goals, that is very problematic. To make matters worse, with the injuries to Matt Roy and Sean Walker, the makeup of the Kings defense corps will be in flux for the foreseeable future.
Going into this season, the team knew at least two rookies would be playing most of the time – Mikey Anderson and one of either Kale Clague and Tobias Bjornfot. They also re-signed Kurtis MacDermid to serve mostly as the seventh defenseman and also brought in Mark Alt to provide depth in Ontario. With the two injuries, MacDermid, Alt, and rookies Bjornfot and even Austin Strand will find themselves with more playing time. Certainly, this was not the plan going into the season and barring a trade or free-agent signing. This will be the makeup of the defense for at least a month.
There is a strong sentiment among Kings fans to “let the kids play,” and knowing their team has one of, if not the best prospect pools in the NHL, who could blame them. To know what they really have in their prospects, the Kings will have to get them NHL playing time, which seems to present the perfect opportunity.
The one caveat in all of this, however, is to “let the kids play,” means there will be three or four rookie defensemen in the lineup on a regular basis and with that comes on ice growing pains. Even when Roy and Walker come back, it could be greatly beneficial for all involved to deviate from the plan and have both Clague and Bjornfot stay with the Kings and learn from the veterans.
Category three: LA Kings Goaltending.
Grade: B
The LA King’s goaltending has been solid this season, especially considering the problems the team has been having on defense. Going into the season, the plan was for Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen to share goaltending duties pretty evenly – and that’s what has happened, as Quick has six starts and Petersen has four.
Jonathan Quick actually started the first two games this season while Petersen was in the covid protocol. On paper, Quick’s stats are not good at all: he only has two wins to go with a 4.05 GAA and a .867 save percentage. In all fairness to Quick, however, the defense has allowed several high-quality scoring chances in the games he has played, especially in his last two losses against Minnesota and Vegas, respectively. The game against Vegas especially bloated his numbers, as he was hung out to dry for most of the time he was in the game.
Cal Petersen has been anointed the LA Kings “goalie of the future,” and his play this season has shown why. To put it simply, he has been outstanding. Although he has only one win, he has a sparkling 2,18 GAA, along with a save percentage of .935. Petersen’s lack of wins more of a result of no help from the Kings offense than anything else.
Jonathan Quick is still a quality NHL goaltender despite what his stat line says. With that said, Cal Petersen’s play has earned him more playing time, and the time is now to make him the team’s #1 goaltender.
Category number four: LA Kings Special teams.
Grade: A
If there has been a highlight to the LA Kings season thus far, it is the play of their special teams. Despite having a losing record, it has been the Kings special teams play that has helped keep them in most of their games. The astounding part about this special teams success is it is happening despite the team’s five-on-five struggles on offense and defense.
The Kings power play is currently eleventh in the league with a success rate of 23.1 percent. With nine goals scored, the power play has accounted for one-third of the team’s total offense. While the power play efficiency is a pleasant surprise, it can not account for 33 percent of the total offense for the Kings to be successful going forward.
Even more impressive has been the Kings penalty-killing units, which right now is the fourth-best in the NHL. They have killed 32 of 37penalties, with half of their games being played against the top three teams in their division. The penalty killing prowess might be difficult to maintain with all the injuries to the defense, but if the Kings are going to turn their season around, it will need to continue.