Waking up with the Kings: March 5

There were cautionary overtones early in Los Angeles’ 4-3 loss to Vancouver on Saturday, a game in which the Kings showed signs early of not being appropriately engaged. Against light pressure, Los Angeles struggled with their breakouts for a good 90-second stretch early in the first period, a puzzling prelude for a team regarded for its positioning and systems play. Leading 1-0, Vancouver scored an important second goal late in the period on a smart up-ice read by Alex Edler. Noticing Henrik Sedin’s exit from the box and a number of Kings near or behind him in the offensive zone, he sprinted up ice, away from the puck, and turned what would’ve been a one-on-one into a two-on-one, which forced Drew Doughty to respect the pass while defending an odd-man rush. Doughty does what he is so good at and got a stick on the intended pass to Edler, but the Hockey God in charge of bounces – clearly itching for vengeance after the Nikita Zaitsev Incident – was not appeased by the sacrificial offering of the first 10 minutes of tepid play, and the puck floated end-over-end past Ben Bishop, who was moving across the grain and unable to recover in time. Importantly, this game can’t really be pinned on the bounces. It can be pinned on a poor start, and even on the two-on-one deflection goal, the Kings too aggressively forced a zone entry during their four-on-three power play despite ample amounts of space on the ice and enough time left on the man advantage to set up more patient access into the zone. Los Angeles, though it recovered well at the dot, also lost 14-of-19 first period faceoffs while falling behind early.

Adrian Kempe, meanwhile, might’ve played his best 12 and a half minutes in North America. Rookies, take note: Want to continue to raise your graces under Darryl Sutter? Go hard at Alex Edler while killing a penalty, make an open ice hit, knock a very good defenseman to the ice, steal the puck, and walk in alone on Ryan Miller for a shorthanded breakaway. Kempe didn’t actually score on the breakaway, and his percentage of scoring chances converted is still #DIV/0!, but he’s getting chances, and these chances are ultimately going to start going in as he gains more experience. He also had two assists, the second on another strong shorthanded play with under 90 seconds remaining, but by that point the Kings had about a two percent chance of tying the game and weren’t able to complete the first four-goal comeback since the November, 2007 6-5 overtime win over Dallas. But Kempe was fast, appeared capable down the middle of the ice, took three shots on goal and won five-of-nine faceoffs, so with Nick Shore out of the lineup, he seems to have earned another shot at center. If there’s any “larger picture” to be gained from one game (there probably shouldn’t be), Saturday’s game depicted very encouraging play from the rookie.

While some had seen the nine consecutive road games in December and the January-February stretch of nine of 10 games played on the road as a make-or-break stretch of the season, it really wasn’t, unless, like, the Kings had won or lost all nine road games. This current stretch, however, is a crucially important link to whether Los Angeles gets into the playoffs or disperses following the April 9 game at Anaheim. If this is to be a playoff team, it is imperative that the Kings do not replicate the success from their last seven-game home stand, which resulted in a 3-4-0 record in January and losses to non-playoff teams such as Detroit, Dallas and Tampa Bay. Having lost to Vancouver, Los Angeles now has five days to stand over their golf shot, which includes a front nine against Nashville, followed by a back nine against NHL-leading Washington on Saturday. Yesterday’s game wasn’t one that a team clinging to a narrow lead in the hunt for a playoff spot had the luxury of letting get away.