Consistency Is King(s) In The Opening Night Top-9

Consistency is king.

Or, perhaps, Kings.

For the first time in the current iteration of the LA Kings, the entire Top-9 that ended last season is back in action the following fall.

That group of nine forwards was made complete with the addition of Andrei Kuzmenko, who joined the Kings from Philadelphia at the trade deadline, the missing piece for Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe. With that line together, it complemented the two other lines that had already gelled and fell into place.

From that point on, the Kings thrived offensively. After adding Kuzmenko, it was a group that scored more goals than any other team in the NHL. On a per-game basis, the Kings ranked second in the league behind only the St. Louis Blues. Looking only at 5-on-5 goals? Also second in the NHL.

Not your grandfather’s “can’t score” LA Kings.

What was interesting about what the Kings did is that the goals for did not come at the expense of goals against. The Kings also ranked second in the NHL in goals allowed in that span and despite playing more games than all but one club, they allowed 2.00 goals per game, the best mark in the league in that stretch.

What it amounted to was a +37 goal differential over 22 games played.

In past years, this would matter a lot less. The Kings added Kevin Fiala in the summer of 2022 and Pierre-Luc Dubois in the summer of 2023. Last season, the lines looked completely different for Game 1 than the playoff series in 2023. This year, there is just remarkable consistency.

Now, to suggest that pace will continue would be very unlikely. That’s +138 over 82 games. What I think can continue, though, is an uptick in offensive production, one that came as the lines came together. Future success is not always based on past history but it’s certainly the right place to start.

It’s an option because Kuzmenko is back on a one-year contract extension and each of the other eight forwards are back and under contract for this season. The Kings haven’t brought that kind of consistency back in a long time. If it was consistency around a poor showing then there would be no reasoning for it. But the post-deadline stretch of hockey was the best stretch the Kings played all season. There are no guarantees for similar results and as noted, I don’t expect the Kings to just replicate a 22-game pace over 82 games. That would be unrealistic. But the consistency is helpful, no doubt, and just about everyone here is feeling it.

“We made a big step forward [in goals scored] last year, but we still maintained our defensive conscience,” Hiller said. “That’s just the way it’s got to be. Maintain that and we’d like to be in the Top 10 [in the NHL] in goals this year. I don’t know if we will, but we don’t want to slide in the goals against.”

So how do they plan to do that?

All starts with consistency.

Photo by Leila Devlin/Getty Images

For Kuzmenko, Kopitar and Kempe, having last season’s experience was welcomed. They were very productive as a line after Kuzmenko joined the fold, after the latter two went nearly the entire season with a revolving door on their wing. Alex Turcotte played there most and he showed well of himself, but adding Kuzmenko added another dimension for the top line, as well as a fourth line that was substantially better with Turcotte on it.

No Kings player was on the ice for more goals scored than Kempe from February 1 through the end of the season. The Swede values having the same linemates coming into camp and believes it could help everyone get off to a faster start.

“We know each other now and it took a couple games to get to know Kuzy but I think once we got rolling, we played really well,” Kempe said. “It’s going to be nice to keep building on that. I think we’ll find our chemistry back and I think it’s pretty important and pretty nice to have that right away. You don’t have to think too much and get to know a new player and stuff like that, so that will be good.”

The other two lines came together around February 1 and the results were nearly immediate.

For Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield, the pair ranked first and second on the Kings in scoring from that date on, beginning with a win in Carolina on that date when both players had multi-point games. The third member of that line was Alex Laferriere, who led the entire NHL in scoring chances at 5-on-5 from February 1 through the end of the season. The production wasn’t there but the chances were.

A good thing that gets to keep going.

“I think it helps a lot,” Laferriere said of keeping his line going. “I think for me personally, I work better when I know my linemates, know where they’re going to be and their little tendencies and stuff like that. For me, it’s been really nice to have that break period and then kind of still have the chemistry in the back of your head [coming back to camp]. It’s been good.”

For the line with Phillip Danault at center and Warren Foegele and Trevor Moore on the wings, I think the chemistry retained is actually the most important.

Danault and Moore played a lot with Fiala last season and the trio just did not gel the way they did during the 2023-24 season. As a result, all three players were much less productive in the first half of the season. From February 1 on? Foegele led the team in 5-on-5 goals with Moore placing second. Danault led the team in 5-on-5 primary assists. All stemmed from finding the right fit.

“The good thing with those guys is you know what they’re going to bring every time, they’re both hardworking, tenacious, hard on pucks,” Foegele said of his line. “When you’re playing with guys like that, it’s a lot of fun hunting pucks, getting pucks back, they’re a lot of fun to play with.”

For what most would classify as a third line for the Kings, the potential here is quite high. Foegele led the Kings last season with 22 goals 5-on-5. Moore led the team with 25 5-on-5 goals during the 2023-24 season. Danault led the team with 24 5-on-5 goals during the 2021-22 campaign. If you put together in a blind ranking a team’s leader in 5-on-5 goals in three of the last four seasons, you’d be talking about a first or second line in most situations.

For the Kings, if that’s line three, something is going really well, especially when you factor in the shutdown nature in a matchup role this line typically plays. Danault believes that the consistency should benefit his line, certainly, but the team as a whole. Ultimately that’s what’s most important.

“[We had] good success last year and obviously it changes every year,but that consistency is the most important thing,” Danault said. “Obviously, coming back, we finished strong last year, so if we can get the same thing this year, with Q getting more mature and stronger, I think we can bring a little more [as a group] for sure.”

Now look. This is a good narrative to have heading into Opening Night. It’s easy to preach the consistency now and the potential that it carries because the puck hasn’t dropped. Things will happen. As of yesterday, there was a risk that Laferriere might not even play in Game 1 due to an injury. Things can change that quickly. It’s unlikely these three lines will play 82 games as they began the season. Injuries, performance, freshness and other factors will ultimately determine that.

For Game 1, though, we’re looking at familiar circumstances. They’re the same circumstances that made the Kings as dynamic an offensive team as we’ve seen here in a long, long time. Sometimes the easiest decision is the right one. When the pieces in place fit the puzzle, just put them in. Exactly what the Kings are expected to do come puck drop tomorrow evening.

Photo by Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images