Angeles Analysis – 5 Points, 0 Panic

2-1-1.

5 of a possible 8 points.

All in all, not a bad trip, even if it started better than it ended.

It’s the ending, though, that the Kings will head home with, which consisted of one of a possible four points from a weekend back-to-back versus the Islanders and Rangers. An ending that you view within the larger context of a trip that you’d take under most circumstances.

Looking back at the four games, it’s interesting how different the game flows were in each of the four games. Game 1 in Columbus, the Kings offered very little for 40 minutes, before adopting a direct, volume-shooting mentality that resulted in four unanswered goals in an eventual overtime victory. In Game 1 against Montreal, the Kings withstood a strong start from the opposition, before they closed out the game in impressive fashion, eventually winning by four goals, in a manner that looked pretty unbeatable.

On Long Island, with a two-goal lead, the Kings appeared to be well on their way to winning in a similar fashion to Montreal. Then, there’s that turnover that led to a goal against, a goal that swung momentum in the Islanders direction. It was a game in which the Kings had several opportunities to put away, but even despite that, it’s a game they see out more often than not, whether it be two goals or more. A lesson to be learned, but one that got away.

Against the Rangers, perhaps we saw a team that ran itself out of steam. Todd McLellan though the legs were there early on, but penalty troubles and some rarities on the penalty kill – losing faceoffs, not getting turnovers and clears – resulted in a lot of hard minutes for a lot of players, on a night in which they could ill-afford it. With Vladislav Gavrikov leaving the game after 20 minutes due to a lower-body injury, and Phillip Danault missing some time after he took a puck up high, not to mention a misconduct penalty to Kevin Fiala that cost him 10 minutes, the bench was short for much of the night. In a situation when the Kings needed everybody, they were never able to have it, for one reason or another.

When you come off the start to the season that the Kings have had, especially looking at the road start, you buy yourself a bit of leeway in situations like this. If you think about it, other than losing Viktor Arvidsson to a serious injury, have the Kings really faced all that much adversity in the first two months of this season? A couple losses here and there, sure, but once you get past the salary-cap impacted Game 1, and a mistake-filled Game 2, the Kings have large-in-part rolled along without issue.

That’s one of the reasons I liked what Mikey Anderson said after the game yesterday.

He almost seemed to welcome the adversity, because he knows exactly how the group will respond. Remember all of those comments about why the Kings have been so successful on the road in the early stages of this season? It’s the same rationale as to why there’s no panic and no concern with this group. Even as the team dropped its first three points of the season on the road, the Kings have veteran leadership that has steered this group through a heck of a lot choppier waters than this. This is a team that’s gone through some ups and downs together over the last couple of seasons. Heading home even off a pair of defeats, the feeling is still pretty good.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t things the Kings want to address, though.

Naturally, the biggest question mark pertains to the status of Gavrikov, who has now left consecutive games with an injury. Gavrikov initially went down after a collision with New York forward Anders Lee, which caused him to miss some time in the third period, though he eventually returned to finish the game. He then left Sunday’s game with what was deemed a lower-body injury. Should Gavrikov need to miss any time, Tobias Bjornfot’s conditioning loan in Ontario will soon expire, meaning the Kings will need to recall him to the active roster sooner rather than later. Defenseman Jacob Moverare is a reliable option who is currently up with the Kings, and there’s also defenseman Brandt Clarke, who is off to a flying start to his first full professional campaign. That’s a question for tomorrow, though.

The penalty kill, which has been exemplary this season, conceded twice on Sunday, albeit against a terrific power-play unit. It was a night when that PK unit was tested too regularly, with even the successful kills feeling like two straight minutes of in-zone defending. The officiating was without a doubt subpar in both games, but it’s a variable both teams fought against, specifically at Madison Square Garden. Consistently bad is at least consistent. The Kings also scored just three goals in the two games in New York. On Saturday at least, it wasn’t due to lack of chances. For the NHL’s highest-scoring offense on the road, that’s a change from what we’ve seen for most of this season. There’s a lot of reason to believe these things are just aberrations in the grander scheme. This feels like a group determined to show that will be the case.

The Kings have yet to lose back-to-back games in regulation this season, and they’ll put that mark to the test once again on Wednesday, with the Winnipeg Jets in town. While last year’s team didn’t quite have the consistency we’ve seen from this year’s group early in the season, it was a group that put an end to losing streaks, quickly. In fact, it wasn’t until X/X that we saw the Kings lose three consecutive games in regulation. It’s an important trait to have. Don’t let negative trends linger.

Coming off this Eastern swing, the Kings will now enter a stretch of conference play and specifically divisional action. Following the midweek tilt against Winnipeg, the Kings will begin a stretch of seven consecutive games against teams from the Pacific Division. They’ll see Seattle and San Jose twice apiece, with games against Calgary, Vegas and Edmonton in there as well. No better time than to put points in the bank than with a slate of divisional games.

Kings are off today, Insiders, but back in action for practice tomorrow. Full day of coverage ahead, as we set the stage for Wednesday’s return to game action.