Angeles Analysis – An Organizational Off Day

A day when both the LA Kings and Ontario Reign are off. A rarity within the LA Kings hockey world.

The Kings are coming off a back-to-back set of afternoon games this weekend, a pair of victories, as they completed the Thanksgiving sweep with wins over Anaheim and Montreal. The Ontario Reign are coming off a pair of victories of their own this weekend, after two wins up North over the San Jose Barracuda. For the Kings, Saturday was a home tilt, with the group getting the night to themselves in advance of today’s day off. For Ontario, they played at 2 PM in San Jose, meaning a rare day-of game flight back, a night in their own beds and the day off today. It’s rare we see this throughout the Kings organization, when neither team is practicing and neither team is playing. Even rarer to see both teams enter that day off coming off a weekend sweep of games. Have to imagine we’ve hardly ever seen it when both teams enter a day off on concurrent three-game winning streaks and point streaks of five-plus games each.

Certainly no better way to hit a day off, though.

The Kings enter the afternoon with the fourth most points in the NHL, coming off of five consecutive victories, which have brought them to 29 points earned in this young season. The three teams ahead of them are the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights. and the defending Presidents Trophy winners, the Boston Bruins, as well as the ever-potent New York Rangers. Looking up where the Kings stand approaching the final week of November, I was thinking that the opportunity to play for their 30th point of the season was an interesting thing to look back on throughout franchise history. Turns out, what’s more interesting will be the fact that the Kings will conclude their November slate next week with their 20th game of the season. The Kings cracked 30 points through November a season ago, but they had played 26 games at that point in time. Same date range, October 11 through December 1, and a difference of six games. Puts into perspective just how crazy last season’s start was and just how much rest time the Kings have this time around.

Days like today are enjoyable, because they’ll be few and far between once the calendar flips into December. December brings 13 games for the Kings, in what is essentially 28 days, considering the three days off for the NHL’s holiday break. That’s every other day with a game. January brings 15 games in 31 days, which is also a game every other day. Of the 31 days that make up January, the Kings will spend at least parts of 20 of them on the road. While February begins with the reprieve of the NHL All-Star break, combined with a bye week, it ends with 11 games in 20 days, taking place in eight cities. The schedule is about to be a monster for the Kings, so we’ll enjoy days like today when they come about, because over the next three months, we won’t see too many of them.

While the Kings have stolen most of the headlines with their record of 13-3-3, how about the Ontario Reign entering today with a mark of 11-4-2, good for the second-most points in the Pacific Division. The Reign have points in eight consecutive games and enter today as one of five teams through the AHL with a winning percentage over .700. No team across the league has more regulation wins than the Reign and only two teams rank better than their +17 goal differential.

An AHL schedule always different from an NHL schedule, certainly, but even from an AHL standpoint, Ontario has a busy slate coming up. The AHL is a weekend league, typically, but the Reign will have a midweek game every week during the month of December. They’ll play 12 games in total during that month and while that’s less than the Kings will play, Ontario plays fewer games over the course of the season as well. If you include this week going in, that’s five straight weeks with a midweek tilt for Ontario, on top of four back-to-backs. For a team that’s played a lot of Sundays early this season, today marks a weekend day off from the rink. With a busy schedule on the forefront, they’ll likely be enjoying it as much as the Kings are.

As we look ahead, we learn to embrace days like today, because they don’t come around all too often. A much heavier road slate is on the docket, following a steady stretch in California for both teams. For the players and coaches, that means time away from their families, nights in hotel rooms and thousands of miles logged in the sky. Par for the course at least for a Pacific Division squad. Still though, it’s a stretch of another week and change here in Los Angeles. From that perspective, things are great, though the Kings know things are about to get a lot tougher. No better way to finish off this weekend than with two in the win column, which pushes the vibes the right way going into a day off.

Both the Kings and the Reign are back to work on Monday. Ontario prepares to host Tucson on Tuesday, while the Kings will take on the Capitals on Wednesday. With where both teams currently reside in the standings, there’s a tussle impacting the top of the divisions and the Kings will look to be all over it. Go Off Day Go is what they’re saying. A day of family for me, Insiders, and hopefully one you all can enjoy here as well. Full coverage resumes tomorrow and we’ve got plenty of storylines on the docket to come over the next week!