On the Thanksgiving holiday this week, the Los Angeles Kings have been making progress in the standings in the West and the Pacific Division after defeating the Ottawa Senators in regulation on home ice at Crypto.com Arena this past Monday night (Nov. 24).
Los Angeles Kings hold serve in the top 15 in the Week 7 NHL power rankings for this week
Even though the team has struggled to win games on home ice in the Western Conference this fall, the Kings have rallied to get points in seven out of their last eight games this regular season. The Kings picked up a win over the Senators on home ice and overtime and/or shootout losses against the San Jose Sharks (Nov. 20) and Boston Bruins (Nov. 21) in back-to-back games in this past week in the West.
The Kings have played well enough to at least get one point in the standings in the West and in the Pacific Division early this regular season. But the Kings need to find a spark offensively on that end of the ice to start finding more success in the win column in the standings this fall.
I keep getting the feeling that the Kings have put together enough chances to win games on the power play on special teams. But the top power play units on special teams have produced seven scoring chances on special teams in the past two games and five high-danger scoring chances in the past three games (per Natural Stat Trick).
Head coach Jim Hiller and the Kings have only scored two goals on the power play on special teams in the past four games in the West late this month in November.
"We got to be a shooting unit. We got to get pucks to the net, and Perrs switched on to our unit, and he's one of the best guys to ever play the game. That's huge, and especially with him there now. We really got to get to the net, and that's what my mentality was with them about to come out of the box, and lucky it hit one of their guys because we had guys at the net that caused traffic, and just fortunate to win."Brandt Clarke on the Kings' power play
If the Kings can get the offensive spark going on that end of the ice coming out of the Thanksgiving holiday late this month and in early-to-mid December, this team should be more hopeful on home ice this fall. The Kings have only scored more than three goals in a game on home ice once in the past four weeks this month in November this fall.
The Hockey Writers had the Kings in the top half of the Pacific Division and the West in the post-Week 6 NHL power rankings earlier this week for the holiday for Thanksgiving. The Kings and Hiller fell out of the top 10 after being ranked in the top five this past week for Week 6 at No. 4 in the NHL in the power rankings for the league.