The Los Angeles Kings are off to an ugly start to the 2025-26 season, where they have only one win through their first five games. What is surprising about this is that the one win was on the road against the Vegas Golden Knights, where they won 6-5.
In terms of losses, they have regulation losses to the Avalanche, Jets, and Penguins, with a shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild. The most recent loss to the Penguins has to be the most concerning, as the Penguins are expected to be a lottery team, and the Kings jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period before Pittsburgh scored four straight.
The next game for the Kings is not going to get any easier, as it is against the Carolina Hurricanes, who are the last remaining undefeated team this season. When looking at how the season has started, these are three concerning trends that the Kings are going to need to correct sooner rather than later.
LA Kings are giving up too many shots on goal
Last season, Darcy Kuemper was excellent in net for the Los Angeles Kings and was even a Vezina Trophy finalist. This season, along with Anton Forsberg, has been a different story as the Kings' goals against have jumped more than a goal per game from 2.48 to 3.80 this season.
One of the reasons for that has been that teams have been putting more shots on goal as the Kings' goalies faced the second-fewest shots on goal last season. This season, though, the Kings have allowed the 11th most with 137.
Meanwhile, the Kings aren't necessarily getting more shots on goal in the offensive zone and rank 22nd in the league in shots on goal differential at -1.3 after ranking third last season at +0.1, according to NHL EDGE. They can either turn this around by getting more shots on goal or limiting opponents' shots on goal, but either way, this is something they need to win on a consistent basis.
LA Kings are struggling to kill off penalties
Another area the Los Angeles Kings have struggled with, and something they need to correct, is their penalty kill. It starts, though, with the fact that they are taking way more penalties this season as they are averaging 13.6 penalty minutes per game, which is near the top of the league. It is a significant increase from last season's average of 7.7.
In addition to the increase in penalty minutes, the Kings are struggling to kill off those penalties as their penalty kill percentage has gone from 81.4%, which was eighth best in the league, to 27th this season at 66.7%.
One player who can help with that is Joel Armia, who is eighth on the Kings in time on ice in short-handed situations but has a Relative Corsi For % of 22.4%, which is second-best on the Kings.
Los Angeles Kings are not converting their high-danger chances
The Los Angeles Kings are doing a good job getting high-danger chances and currently rank 6th in the league in shots on goal in high-danger situations. However, they are not converting enough with a shooting percentage of 16.7%, which ranks 22nd according to NHL EDGE.
This percentage is also a decrease from last season, when the Kings had a shooting percentage of 20.3%, which was right around the league average. The Kings have been doing a good job of getting these chances, and now it is just a matter of converting them.