“We have a style in place, certainly at home, that we need now to bring onto the road. I can remember talking last year about bringing our style of play on the road to home and making sure we get that down right. We did a pretty good job of that last year. We’ve got to get up there and bring this game on the road.”
The was Jim Hiller, speaking between Saturday’s win over Minnesota and tomorrow’s roadtrip opener on Long Island against the Islanders.
Last season, the success the Kings had on the road in the early stages of the season was record breaking. 11 consecutive road wins to start the year, the best start by any team in NHL history. It just didn’t always translate back to home ice. When Hiller took over as Head Coach, the Kings immediately went 3-1-0 on his first roadtrip. He spoke regularly about taking that road style of play, as Todd McLellan spoke about before him, and bringing it back home.
The Kings have certainly done that since.
At 10-2-1 this season, just two teams in the NHL have a better record on home ice than the Kings do. This isn’t a new stat, but since February 2024, when Hiller took over as the team’s head coach, no franchise around the NHL has a better record at home than the Kings do, with the Kings producing a winning percentage of .800, with a record of 23-5-2 until this point.
Now, the Kings are looking ahead to a seven-game roadtrip over a 15-day span, heading into the NHL’s holiday break at the end of the month.
“The way we’ve played at home, we’ve got a pretty good style of play, it’s pretty tight,” Hiller added today. “We just have to make sure our mindset doesn’t change coming back on the road like this and it’s going to be a tough trip. If we start tomorrow night with the same mindset, we’ll be good.”
Forward Alex Turcotte agreed with his head coach.
Mindset is important, as it tends to be for a team that prides itself on checking first. If the mindset is there, things fall into place.
“I think it’s all just a mindset,” Turcotte said. “We feel really good about where our game’s at right now, and it’s just a mindset, just being consistent. If we do that, the rest will take care of itself.”
The road record has not quite matched the home one to date, with a mark of 6-6-2 entering tomorrow’s game on Long Island. The Kings did win at Minnesota, but five of those six wins have come versus teams below .500. All in all, the six teams have a combined winning percentage of .481. When you subtract Minnesota, it’s .429, which would be the fourth-lowest mark in the NHL. The trip ahead will be a bit tougher, with four of the seven teams currently in, or tied for, a playoff spot and two more just one point off.
The Kings enter Game 1 tomorrow riding a season-long, five-game winning streak, which has included two of their best victories so far this season, wins over Winnipeg and Minnesota. Momentum is certainly high and both games presented elements of what the Kings want to bring onto the road.
In both of those two games, the Kings hosted the NHL’s top team in terms of points. In each game, the Kings exited with a 4-1 victory from a gameflow that saw them outskate, outcompete and outplay their opponent. Exactly what you want against top-tier foes.
Against Winnipeg, the Jets set several season lows. At all strengths, the Jets had just 28 unblocked shot attempts, their lowest total of the season. In no game they’ve played to date have the Jets controlled a smaller percentage of scoring chances than they did against the Kings that night. Their 14 shots on goal were their fewest of the season to date, the only time they didn’t reach 15, let alone 20.
I was close to being able to write a similar paragraph about the Minnesota game, if only for one other game the Wild have played – the game Kings played in Minnesota in early-November. Last night was the second-lowest number of high-danger chances the Wild have had this season, trailing only their game against the Kings at Xcel Energy Center. That game was actually a season-low in a number of categories, with the Kings playing a suffocating brand of hockey on the road that night.
The @LAKings held Minnesota to five high-danger chances last night, per @NatStatTrick. That was the Wild's second-lowest total this season behind only……a 5-1 loss to the Kings in November.
— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 8, 2024
You want to know why I thought these wins were all the more impressive for the Kings, though? Because, while the Kings imposed their game on both opponents, causing for season lows or close to in different categories, the games were not season bests for the Kings. The Kings have allowed 28 or fewer unblocked shot attempts five times this season, including the Winnipeg game. They’ve allowed five or fewer high-danger chances five times this season as well, including the Minnesota game.
These were impressive victories, no doubt about it. Quality of competition does matter and the Kings outplayed both of those teams by most standards. But it’s not as if the Kings played out of their minds on just those two nights against good teams, leading to victories. The numbers produced aren’t outliers. The Kings played the way they’ve been playing, the way they’ve shown they’re capable of playing. In doing so, they continue to find success, regardless of the opponent. When the Kings play like the Kings, the results have been extremely impressive.
“I think our 5-on-5 has been good and putting together 60 solid minutes,” forward Adrian Kempe added, of the team’s recent success. “Before that, we had our moments where maybe we had one or two good periods and then one period not the way we wanted to play, it lost us a couple games. The last games have been really solid, throughout the entire game.”
What does the Kings playing like the Kings mean?
We’re currently talking about the NHL’s best team right now in terms of shot suppression, allowing just 24.2 per/60 minutes. They rank second in the NHL in scoring chances against and high-danger chances against and when you combine it all together, it amounts to the league’s lowest expected goals against, per/60, compared to a fourth-best total in actual goals allowed, with a disparity that isn’t very big. The Kings are suppressing chances of all kinds, both quality and quantity, and keeping the puck out of their net at an elite level.
“It’s hard to play against us right now, especially in the last five games, there’s not much against us,” forward Kevin Fiala said today. “When there is, the goalies make the saves and it’s been great to eliminate the offense of the other teams right now.”
On paper, there’s nothing to suggest the Kings can’t replicate that style of play on the road.
Sure, matchups are more difficult, so getting the Anderson/Gavrikov pairing out when the Kings want them to is more difficult. Same goes for whichever of Kopitar or Danault the Kings want to matchup with. However, that should be the beauty of team depth. The Kings aren’t a team that relies on one line or one pairing. It has to come throughout the lineup. So, in theory, matchups should be of less importance to a team like that.
“Everybody’s contributing right now, all of the lines are playing good defensively,” forward Quinton Byfield added. “There’s just a lot going for us right now and for us, it’s just trying to keep the momentum.”
Still though, the Kings have allowed 24 goals from 13 home games, an average of 1.85 goals against per game, compared to 3.21 from 14 road games. That’s close to double. The Kings, at their core, are still a defensively driven club. It doesn’t have to be sub-two goals every game, but that’s where the team’s success this season has come from.
With seven straight on the road, the resolve and focus of the group will be tested.
It’s difficult to play that type of hockey every night, especially sometimes when you factor in being on the road. That’s what is required though, and that’s what is expected.
“It just maybe requires a little bit more focus, a little more energy from the players,” Hiller added. “It shouldn’t change at all. You just have to make sure, as an individual, that you have the right frame of mind and you can’t get off it. Our guys have been good, so I don’t anticipate that, but we’ll make sure we remind them.”
Kings and Islanders tomorrow at UBS Arena, before the Kings visit the Devils and Rangers later in the week to complete the New York week of their trip. Then, the travel continues into Pennsylvania and beyond, heading into the holiday break. Big one right off the bat, as the Kings hope to keep momentum rolling against the Islanders.
📍 Long Island pic.twitter.com/XI5gTKjeM1
— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 9, 2024
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