With two goals in Game 1, the Kings got the power-play production they’ve craved, at the most timely of moments

Two minutes and 49 seconds.

That’s how long it took for the LA Kings to exceed last season’s power-play output in the postseason.

“It was great timing,” forward Kevin Fiala said of the early goal. “You get the first one out of the way, you get the crowd into it, you get the guys into it, everybody was hyped up.”

When the fourth line for the Kings drew the game’s first penalty off a furious forechecking shift, the hosts were given an early opportunity to seize momentum with the first power play of the series. And seize they did, with a goal that was executed about as well as the Kings could have hoped for.

“It’s two things, you score early and score on the power play,” Head Coach Jim Hiller said. “I thought if we could have drawn it up, we couldn’t have drawn it up any better than that. The quality of the goal too was just a really nice play. The puck movement was crisp, the execution was crisp and then the goal, that’s really difficult to stop, when you execute like that.”

The passing was terrific. It began with Fiala recovering the puck off a rebound, before he, Anze Kopitar and Andrei Kuzmenko worked the puck to create space, while players moved around away from the puck. When Fiala got it back, on the opposite side of the ice, he fed Kuzmenko at the back post for the goal. As Hiller put it, execution.

THE KUZMENKSHOW IS ON pic.twitter.com/ZeLrBZFfyA

— x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 22, 2025

In executing, what it gave the Kings was momentum. A timely goal, at a timely moment in the game, setting the tone early in Game 1. That’s what the Kings need the power play to do in this series.

Anze Kopitar’s been saying it for a month now.

Taking you back to March 19 in Chicago, speaking in a standard regular-season media availability, Kopitar was asked about a power play that had struggled all season, as he acknowledged. What he said, though, was that no matter what happened down the stretch, the number wasn’t going to get any better. Wasn’t magically going to jump from 29th in the NHL to 10th. What it could do, though, was provide timely goals in key moments.

Fast forward to Game 1 last night and what happened? Exactly what Kopitar hoped would come into fruition. When speaking again on the subject last night, he felt it actually happened twice, with the 5-on-3 goal that followed in the third period also coming at a time when the Kings needed a goal.

“There’s no secret that our power-play numbers this year weren’t where we needed them to be, but at the same time, we’re entering the time of the season when the timely goals are huge,” Kopitar said last night. “Getting the first one [in Game 1] and scoring about five seconds into the 5-on-3, those are timely goals. We’re going to need that going forward.”

The timeliness is essential and I thought it had a pretty big impact on the game.

You can’t just say it though. You also can’t choose when you get your power plays. So the unit has to be clicking at all times to be ready for those moments and I think we’ve seen that now coming into the playoffs.

The Kings are now six games into the five-forward look on the man advantage, including last night’s Game 1. In those six games? They’ve scored 10 goals in total, including at least one goal in all six games, bolstered by last night’s double. They’re not going to score every night, but even on the other four chances they had in Game 1, the power looked substantially more dangerous than we’ve seen for much of this season.

“Those power plays were definitely big for us,” forward Quinton Byfield said. “Being on the power play, the coaches trust in you to score big goals and do the job with the man advantage. I think the guys did a great job moving the puck around, shooting at all opportunities, Kev hit the post, Skinner made some great saves on the other 5-on-3 also. There’s a lot of chances there and we felt good.”

22 ON THE TWO MAN ADVANTAGE pic.twitter.com/evR3GAkq58

— x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 22, 2025

The new-look approach brings players into different spots.

Adrian Kempe moves from the right side to the center, with Fiala moving from the left circle, where he’s largely played with the Kings, to the right circle. Kopitar takes Fiala’s place on the left, while forward Andrei Kuzmenko fills the right-shot playmaker role the Kings have missed for much of the season. Byfield rounds out the unit as the man in the middle, doing a lot of the work that perhaps goes unnoticed but is quite important.

The first focal point is Kuzmenko, for a couple of reasons.

Number one, he’s the newest addition to the group and a player who was specifically targeted at the trade deadline, in part, for his role on the power play. He’s also the only right-shot player of the group, a guy who plays I think a bit more of a specific role, with playmaking abilities. The role he’s played has certainly not been lost on his teammates.

“Kuzy’s been a real threat down low, it’s something that we were missing all season, a righty down low that’s making a lot of plays,” Kempe said of the crafty winger. “When he has the puck, he has four lefties that are ready to shoot a one timer, so put some respect on him. I think the power play has been more of a threat, I feel like, every time we’ve been out there.”

While he was quick to distribute credit elsewhere, Kempe has played a big role as well. Because of, well, his distribution.

Kempe led the team with 11 power-play goals two seasons ago, as he established himself as the team’s top shooting threat on one-timer situations. And he’s still an option there, just via the low-to-high pass from Kuzmenko, as opposed to the seam pass he scored on in the past. Kempe also has an added responsibility as a puck distributor, which is something that he’s become a bit underrated at, considering the recognition he gets as a scorer.

While his head coach doesn’t believe that distributing the puck is Kempe’s greatest attribute, there’s been no question he’s done so effectively when asked.

“I think goal scoring is [his best attribute], he is a goal scorer, but he’s done a good job,” Hiller said. “It’s different up there, because you’re the last man, so there’s a little more pressure when you’re handling the puck, as compared to being down low on the flank, but he’s made some couple good looks, there’s no question. He’s got his head up, that’s the one thing he does, he’s got his head up and I think the other thing he does is delivers it pretty firmly……it’s not slow developing, he snaps it pretty quickly.”

Others have excelled in their new positions as well.

I think Fiala’s performance is best described via the statistics. He has four power-play goals in the six games since moving to the five-forward look. He had the second of two in last night’s Game 1 victory, in a 5-on-3 situation, as the Kings kept things simple. They won the faceoff in the offensive zone, Kempe fed Fiala in the wheelhouse and he made no mistake. Simple formula, effective outcome.

Kopitar is very comfortable playing on the left side and with more weapons around him than he’s had for long stretches of his career, he doesn’t have to be the guy driving the bus every single time the Kings enter the offensive zone. He’s done a great job in retaining possession and keeping the puck moving, as we saw on Kuzmenko’s goal yesterday. For Byfield, he led the Kings yesterday with four loose-puck recoveries in the offensive zone on the PP. That’s a big part of his role and he played it well in Game 1.

All-in-all, an effective showing to start the postseason. It’s a long series, though, and scoring twice in Game 1 won’t be enough. The Kings know that despite a really good start on the penalty kill as well, the Oilers will eventually get theirs in power-play situations. The ability to match with timely goals, as was the case yesterday, could be a pivotal part in determining how this series ultimately shakes out.

Photo by Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images