Angeles Analysis – Pushing The Right Buttons

The LA Kings are 8-3-3.

A Nashville/Minnesota back-to-back, on paper, felt like a win the first one cuz the second one might be tough sledding situation. Not that the Wild are unbeatable, or that the Kings were not capable of beating them, but I’d say that’s one of the tougher back-to-backs you’ll see.

The Kings took care of business on Night 1 in Tennessee, a performance that Jim Hiller called “perhaps the most complete we’ve had this season.”

After a flight and a late night to bed, the Kings grinded early and put themselves in a position to strike twice in Minnesota. Lots of things to like as that game went along, after a slow yet compact start, and the Kings ultimately wound up winning comfortably, by a 4-1 final.

Over the two games, give Jim Hiller his credit. He pushed all the right buttons, even some that were not popular when he pushed them.

Jim Hiller pushed every button correctly tonight.

– Went back to Kuemper after Saturday & he pitched a shutout.
– Put Anderson/Spence back together and they posted excellent splits.
– Gavrikov/Burroughs with solid splits as well.

Adjustments all paid off in a 3-0 win.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) November 5, 2024

Darcy Kuemper started in Nashville and posted his first shutout of the season, coming off what was not his strongest performance against Chicago on Saturday. Then, it was David Rittich’s turn in Minnesota. Both netminders finished at better than one goal saved above average over the course of 60 minutes, as they combined for nearly three over the 120 minutes in total. The Kings relied heavily on Cam Talbot early last season, when his performance was excellent, but the heavy workload eventually wore on him. It took nearly a month-long reset to get back on track. Getting quality starts from both goaltenders early will be key to keeping everyone fresh and good on Hiller for choosing to align the goaltenders the way he did.

The blueline saw the pairings from the weekend reshuffled and got rewarded for it. Mikey Anderson and Jordan Spence struggled together to start the season and played their best hockey separately. Hiller put them back together and the on-ice results spoke for themselves. Over the course of the two games, Anderson and Spence were on the ice for 14 scoring chances for, compared to just four against. More than 60 percent of shot attempts too. Hiller has said that he likes to shift his pairings to match up against different opposition. With Kyle Burroughs introduced back into the lineup, that meant the pairs needed to change back to a lefty/righty configuration. Anderson and Spence delivered on the promise they offered back in training camp. Good on both for adjusting and performing.

Up front, how about two goals from Trevor Lewis in Minnesota.

Lewis is the subject of the ire of fans at times, but he offers a steady presence on the fourth line. Hiller has said that he wants a fourth line to simply be even, while providing a spark from time to time. Lewis is certainly the former. It’s unlikely he will play in all 82 games and likely would have already missed at least one if not for injuries and protocol-based scratches. Still, on the second half of the back-to-back, he scored a crucial insurance goal and iced things with the empty netter, with the former being the 100th goal of his career. Lewis passed up the chance to bury his milestone marker on Monday in Nashville, opting to feed Adrian Kempe instead. Perhaps what goes around comes around. In Minnesota, Lewis was on the ice for 13 shot attempts for, compared to just three against. He had a good night and got rewarded. Credit to Hiller for trusting his veteran player.

The Kings also had to deal with an injury to Alex Turcotte in Nashville. Hiller has always been willing to move the lines around. What that means is comfort and familiarity in a lot of different situations. Midway through the game, up went Kevin Fiala to play with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe on Tuesday. It’s a line we haven’t seen much of since the 2022-23 season, when frankly it didn’t really work. Seemed to click pretty well last night.

Hiller resisted the temptation to move Quinton Byfield back to that spot, keeping him at center with Warren Foegele and Alex Laferriere on a line that’s been dynamite. It was a great shift from Byfield leading to the first Kings goal of the evening. He used his six-foot five frame and reach to poke the puck into the offensive zone. He skated well to win the race to the corner and used his playmaking ability to send a spinning, no-look pass into the slot. With the Kings leading 3-1 late, Byfield finally got off the schneid, burying his first goal of the season on a high redirection. All on the line he should have been playing with, at the position he should have been playing. Another button pushed correctly.

While Hiller deserves credit, so do the players. The group committed to playing the right way in Nashville and got rewarded with a suffocating performance, especially in the third period, to get two points. They showed resilience under less than ideal circumstances in Minnesota and fought their way to another road victory, this against the red-hot Minnesota Wild. Over the final 30 minutes, the Kings looked like the rested team, not the team playing a back-to-back. Over their last four games, the Kings have played 8-1-2 Minnesota and 7-2-1 Vegas. The won those games by a combined 10-4 scoreline. So much for the “can’t beat good teams” narrative, I guess.

Consistency is starting to show. Minus a ten-minute chunk in the Chicago game, and a couple breakdowns defensively late in that game, the last four games have been, by far, the best four-game stretch of the season. The thing with consistency, though, is that it’s not about four games. Four games shouldn’t sell you that the Kings are fine. The Kings have found something and now they’ve got to keep it rolling. Consistency is developed over time, it’s developed by performing night in and night out. With an 8-3-3 record, the results have been quite good. Now, we’re seeing players get off the schneid and we’re seeing a team that’s starting to play closer to the same way on a nightly basis. If that keeps up……we might just have something here.

Kings are off today following the back-to-back. I’ll be back with tomorrow’s game preview as the Kings host Vancouver in a Pacific Division showdown! Way to early to talk about playoff races, but Vancouver is a team the Kings will likely be in contention with all season. Can never win too many of those types of games. More to follow in the AM!