Angeles Analysis – At The End Of The Day

If you compared the current LA Kings roadtrip to any team the trip took last season, regardless of the result tomorrow, it would have been the best trip of the season.

The Kings went 2-1-2 on their season-opening five-game trip last year, six points from five games played. 3-2-2 if you extend to include one-offs in Anaheim and Vegas, a .571 points percentage. The Kings had another 3-2-2 trip later in the season in December and every other Kings trip last season was worse.

Entering tomorrow’s game versus San Jose, the Kings are 3-0-1, with seven of a possible eight points already in the bank. In franchise history, the Kings have had just two five-game trips result in a perfect, 5-0-0 record. The last came in the 2010-11 season. The Kings won’t be playing tomorrow to replicate that but the next best thing is in play, if they can get a result against the Sharks.

Those all feel like good things.

Certainly doesn’t feel like it, based on the narrative surrounding the team though, does it?

I actually thought the best game the Kings played on this trip was the one they did not win. St. Louis was just kind of a classic Kings win, burying one more than the opposition in a low-scoring game. Probably the most “like the Kings” win until that point. The Kings were probably outplayed in Dallas but the resolve was outstanding, as was the goaltending, and the Kings conquered the demons of the American Airlines Center. In Chicago, the Kings started poorly but battled over the final 40 minutes to get a gritty win off a quick turnaround, improving to 2-0-0 this season on the second half of back-to-backs.

Against Nashville, the Kings controlled more of the puck than in any other game this season. The generated more, they created more, they scored more. But ultimately, they lost 5-4 in an extensive shootout, in a game that should have been wrapped up long before that point.

When you look at things from a wider lens, things look encouraging. 3-0-1 on this trip, points in five straight games, sitting in a playoff spot in the Pacific Division as the team departed Chicago last night. Any or all of those things, evaluated in a vacuum, would feel good, wouldn’t they? Even within the context of what was a start that consisted of one win from six to start the season, you’d probably say well okay, they’ve righted the ship.

At The End Of The Day, as DTLA Kings Fan would put it in the comments, the Kings are where they are. And that’s in a playoff position with seven of eight points on this trip already in the bank.

When you go more granular, game-by-game, the Kings feel like, as forward Trevor Moore put it well the other day, a team that is “still finding our way”.

I think one thing I was guilty of over-estimating with this group was consistency from last season carrying over exactly as it finished last year. It’s a new season, lots of time between Game 6 in May and Opening Night in October, but I looked at the consistency up front and was quite encouraged. One of the things that gave me the most optimism coming into the season was bringing back the entirety of the Top-9. I actually think it was the thing I was most excited about. The Kings were second in goals-per-game last season after acquiring Andrei Kuzmenko to round out that group. What drove the team in that late-season stretch last year was the depth. On most nights, two, if not three lines all seemed to be going and that led to an uptick in goals for the group after the deadline. I think that’s been part of what’s been missing in the early goings here. In Chicago, it was the Byfield line. In Nashville it was Danault’s line and Turcotte’s line. In St. Louis, it was Kempe’s line. There’s been production from different players,different lines, but we haven’t seen that same overlap on most nights between the top three lines.

I think it will come, but it hasn’t come just yet. The game-to-game consistency hasn’t quite been there and that’s part of what is leading to so many tight games. I think that’s a lot of what Moore is talking about. Six of nine went to overtime, the first team in NHL history to do have that happen. I thought about writing “first team to achieve that feat” but I’m not sure it’s exactly an achievement. But you could feel the smiles and light-hearted jokes in getting one done in regulation yesterday.

Phillip Danault apologized for being a little bit late coming back into the room for his post-game interview and I joked he was actually earlier than usual because we didn’t have to play overtime for once, which drew a (very small) laugh. Joel Edmundson laughed himself as he said he expected the remainder of the schedule to head to overtime at the rate they were going.

The Chicago win, like the St. Louis and Dallas wins before, was not a perfect win. But it was a win, as were the other two. And if the Kings are a team that is still finding its way then it’s a heck of a lot better to find your way while you’re racking up points, as opposed to the alternative. This trip, if nothing else, has stabilized the base for the Kings. Three wins and seven points thus far has brought the Kings back to a modernly embraced soccer formation of a record at 4-3-3. One point behind where they were last season, one point ahead of where they were in 2022-23 and two points better than the 2021-22 season. You can poke holes in a lot of areas and that’s fair. But the numbers are the numbers, man. At the end of the day……to this point, the Kings have taken care of their business, record wise, just about as well as they could have on this trip.

Now comes what I think could be the second-biggest test the team will face after Dallas. The Kings had a four-plus hour flight to San Jose last night. Typically, when coming back from a trip to the Central or Eastern Time Zone, the Kings get two days off. One for rest and recovery, one to practice. They don’t have that here. It’s the last game of a five-game trip and it’s on the road in San Jose, however they are facing a San Jose team in the exact same boat, after playing last night in Minnesota, which followed games against the Islanders, Rangers and Devils. So it’s pretty level footing here. The Kings went 4-0 last season with multiple days, 1-2-1 with just the one. They haven’t had one like this in awhile so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare tomorrow night.

Day off today, back at it tomorrow for a skate and a game in San Jose! No update just yet regarding forward Warren Foegele, but will seek that out in the morning. Enjoy the day, Insiders. Should have a prospect-themed feature coming up later on tonight. Talk soon.