A tense night at Crypto.com Arena for Jim Hiller and the Los Angeles Kings (15-11-9) was already heightened against the Columbus Blue Jackets (15-15-6) on Monday night (Dec. 22). The Kings needed to get on the right side of the win column last night in the front end of back-to-back games on home ice before the holiday break for Christmas this upcoming week.
Los Angeles Kings and Jim Hiller suffer bad loss to the Blue Jackets at home on Monday night early this week
After a rough road trip in the East this past week, including losses to the Stars in Dallas and the Florida Panthers on the East Coast, the Kings needed something to build momentum in the standings this week before the holiday break.
A common theme of special teams issues on the power play and a lack of production and scoring offensively on that end of the ice cost the Kings early in the game yesterday in the first period against Columbus on home ice. Columbus jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the opening frame in the first period.
The Kings were able to cut the lead in half on the scoreboard in the middle frame in the second period. But the Kings couldn't capitalize on a second-period goal at even strength by winger Andrei Kuzmenko. The Jackets came up with the 3-1 lead by multiple goals on the scoreboard yesterday in one of the worst losses of this regular season in this past couple of months for Hiller and the Kings.
Hiller gave his reaction to the media yesterday after the embarrassing two-goal loss to Columbus on home ice at Crypto Arena on special teams last night.
Last night saw the Kings go 0-for-5 on the power play on special teams against a team missing their best defenseman in Zach Werenski vs. Columbus.
Here's a look at everything Hiller said to the media postgame following the Kings' horrid 3-1 loss on home ice to the Blue Jackets from Columbus on Dec. 22.
Jim Hiller
On the Kings' struggles on home ice this regular season
"That’s hard. I didn’t think we started with good legs. They had a couple o-zone shifts, got us on our heels and we didn’t establish anything. We got better as we went along but obviously it wasn’t good enough."
On the team's lack of discipline on special teams and how the team was showing energy on both ends of the ice
"Decisions on the penalties, first, unacceptable. You saw the penalties, we saw them and I’ve said it before, sometimes they’re 50/50, the refs call them, these were just bad penalties, just very poor decisions.
The effort, I never question the effort of our team. I think we tried, there’s no question. When you take seven penalties and a combination of them, it makes it pretty hard for the other guys. They’ve got to sit on the bench, penalty killers wearing themselves out, then you want to go try to play offense, and the rhythm is off. We really didn’t give ourselves a fair chance."
On how momentum flipped for the Kings on the power play goal on special teams that Columbus scored yesterday
"No question. I mean, the game changes on different moments and that, for me, was a moment that changed. You get the crowd in the building, we’re short, we feel good, who knows what happens next. We don’t execute, they execute, now we’re in a hole."
On how the Kings' power play performed yesterday at home vs. Columbus
"Power play guys are usually your most talented players, so they want to feel good on the power play. They want to score first, for sure, but they want to feel good, they want to make good passes, they want to have opportunities. Even if you don’t score, you still feel like there’s some momentum coming out of it. When it doesn’t happen for you, then the grind 5-on-5 feels that much more difficult."
On the ice time Sammy Helenius had yesterday for the Kings
"It’s something I’ve talked to Sammy about. We need him out there, but we’re going to lean on 11 forwards, even though we only have the six defensemen. Sammy understands that, we’ve had that conversation. We’re a little thinner in the middle, we want to have the extra center in there for different reasons.
Sammy, he’s got to eat it, but we’ve talked about it, so it’s kind of like 11 and six with him in there as the safety valve there right now. He’ll get more minutes. There will be times when he gets out there, and he gets the forecheck going. We got behind early tonight, so we wanted to try to push for some offense."