Angeles Analysis – Do Style Points Matter?

A homestand of 3-1-1 for the LA Kings.

That’s consecutive homestands with winning records, following a 2-1-0 mark in late-February.

The results are what is important right now for the Kings. In the heart of a playoff race, as teams around the Kings get hot down the stretch, it’s important to hold serve. Edmonton, the team in front of the Kings in the Pacific Division, is 6-3-1 in its last 10. Nashville, which now sits a point ahead of the Kings, is 8-0-2. Chasing the Kings from behind are several teams, including Calgary and Seattle, which have each won six of their last ten games. Minnesota has points in 12 of its last 16 games. So, right now for the Kings, the most important thing is amassing points. With seven of a possible 10 earned on this homestand, that’s mission accomplished.

That’s not to say it was the prettiest five games the Kings have played this season. It certainly started off that way, with a complete effort against New Jersey carrying the team’s play on the road back to home ice. Wins against New York and especially Ottawa saw the Kings grind out two points, while an overtime loss against Vancouver had playoff energy to it, a night when everything was hard to come by between teams that could potentially meet in Round 1. The loss to Dallas was a chance to matchup against one of the NHL’s best, but on that night, the Kings were outmatched throughout the 60 minutes. Another crack at that team coming up this weekend.

That drives the conversation as it pertains to style points. How important are they? In the standings, they don’t count for anything. The win over New Jersey and the win over Ottawa count the same, despite the Kings feeling vastly differently about both performances. The New Jersey game was damn good. The Ottawa win had its moments, but it wasn’t a full 60 minutes by any means. In the standings, two points are two points, the way that David Rittich put it after last night’s win. Still though, the Kings know they’ll eventually need to play a certain style of hockey on a consistent basis to find success come the playoffs. As the competition stiffens, the bar for the needed performance to get results rises as well. There have certainly been plenty of games where the Kings have won with style. Some when they haven’t, too. Right now, the onus is on winning games and continuing to find that early-season style along the way.

“Style points matter, certainly at the time and during the game, but we’ve moved on already and we’ve had style points earlier this year,” Jim Hiller said earlier this week. “Really, when we got in the first part of our poor stretch, and I think I mentioned this, we played really quite well. We were up 2-0, 3-1, breakaways, 2-on-1’s and couldn’t get the other one, so I would have said we deserved style points for that game, but we lost. Now, we don’t even remember those. We just know where we’re at today and we know that we have to put two points in the bank.”

The way the Kings played on their homestand was in some ways shown through the numbers.

Diving into the puck possession metrics in 5-on-5 situations, the Kings are one of the NHL’s best puck possession teams on the season. They rank second in the NHL in percentage of shots on goal controlled, fourth in shot attempts, fifth in high-danger chances and sixth in scoring chances. Over the extended sample, one of the league’s top teams. Over the last five games, however, the Kings dipped slightly below 50 percent in each of those categories. Yet, they posted a winning record, as they outscored the opposition at 5-on-5.

Of players to play in all five games, the only four to rank above 50 percent in terms of shot attempts controlled are the line of Kevin Fiala, Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore, along with defenseman Drew Doughty. The aforementioned trio had a really strong homestand and provided the team’s most consistent offensive threat. All three players collected five points from their last five games played, including a team-leading four goals from Danault. Doughty had assists in four of the five games played. That right there is four leaders on the team, leading the way at a key juncture of the season.

On the flip side, though, just four players post a goals for differential below even in even-strength situations. Overall, the Kings scored 13 even-strength goals and conceded just eight. For a team that has large in part had those strong, underlying metrics as it pertains to chances created, both by volume and quality, it was pretty rare to see a stretch in which those did not shine through. Even rarer for that to be a stretch that was successful. It’s not how the Kings want to win games ideally, but again, style points aren’t standings points. In some ways, it’s encouraging to see the Kings win games in different ways. It’s not a long-term solution, but it doesn’t have to be the same formula every time, even if ultimately that is the formula the Kings want to get back to.

Looking ahead, the Kings will head to three buildings they have not won in this season. A disappointing overtime loss just before the All-Star break in St. Louis and a “licking” in Dallas, as Jim Hiller put it, back in mid-January. The Kings will also head to Chicago for the first time, where they’ll meet a Blackhawks team eager to spoil a few stretch runs, without one to play for themselves. The onus on banking points continues onto the road, which has felt more like home than Los Angeles had at certain points of the season. As the playoff picture continues to unfold, the Kings know the most important thing is holding serve and continuing to move closer to securing their place in the field of 16. Hopefully, in the process, we’ll see that high-end version of the Kings team, the team we’ve seen in spurts, begin to shine through with more consistently .

Travel day today, Insiders.

Off to St. Louis, where we’ll get back on the ice tomorrow morning at Enterprise Center. As of last night, forward Viktor Arvidsson was not expected to be in the travel party, with Jim Hiller pointing out that it should be more beneficial to him to stay back on his own, get good, hard skates in at Toyota Sports Performance Center and continue his rehab process. Now, that can always change, but that’s the latest from Hiller.

Arvidsson has been skating on his own for several days now and is nearing a return to the full group. The earliest he would be eligible to return from LTIR would be this weekend in Dallas anyways, when his minimum time would be expired. He’s making good progress and it certainly feels more like a notion of sooner rather than later with regards to his eventual return-to-play status.