The Los Angeles Kings returned home after a five game road trip to play the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Kings have been great at home and it seemed like a perfect chance to turn their fortunes around after losing three of their last four.
Unfortunately, that didn't end up happening as the Penguins gained the lead in the first 10 minutes of the game and never really looked back. The final score would end up being 5-1 with the Kings lone goal coming from Adrian Kempe on power play.
It was an ugly game across the board and these are three takeaways from the Los Angeles Kings loss.
David Rittich continues to struggles in net for the LA Kings
At one point this season, David Rittich was playing like the Kings best goaltender but unfortunately those days seem to be gone as he has now dropped four of his last five starts. In each of those games he has allowed at least two goals each game and in the past three games he has given up 11 goals.
With the way Darcy Kuemper has recently played, the Kings haven't needed Rittich as much as those five starts are dating back to December 12th. The Kings shouldn't be too concerned at this point but this could become a much bigger problem if Kuemper misses any time due to injury, which has already been the case twice this season.
Drew Doughty can't return soon enough for the Los Angeles Kings defense
The Kings have been one of the best defensive teams this season but on Monday night it definitely wasn't the case. They looked tired and slow to react which isn't overly surprising considering the minutes Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavrikov, in particular, have played this season.
Anderson, Gavrikov, Brandt Clarke, and Joel Edmundson all finished this game with a +/- of -2 and the Kings gave up 32 shots on goal.
The good news for the Kings is that Drew Doughty took another step towards returning as he participated in practice on Monday. It was in a non-contact jersey but this means his season debut is getting closer.
Time to panic about the offense?
It might be time to start to panic about the Los Angeles Kings offense as they have scored more than two goals in a game only once in the past seven games. While long seasons like in the NHL have ebbs and flows, the last two games in particular should start to raise some concerns.
The Kings have played the Seattle Kraken and Pittsburgh Penguins and been able to only score three goals total. It is not great production when considering that both teams rank in the bottom nine of the NHL in goals against average with the Penguins the worst at 3.59.
Earlier this season, the offense struggled and Jim Hiller shuffled almost all the lines. It might be time for another reshuffle once Alex Laferriere returns.
Unfortunately for the Los Angeles Kings, it doesn't get any easier as the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers come to LA for a game on Wednesday night.