Just when the Los Angeles Kings give you a glimmer of hope toward progress and a chance at some consistency, it’s quickly drained the next time they step out onto the ice. The Kings have yet to string a few wins together this season and it’s almost been a cycle of performances. Play a great game one night and then come back with an iffy performance the next night.
After playing one of their best games of the season last Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings, the Kings had a chance to build some momentum at home after a three-day break. Unfortunately for them, building off good performances isn’t something this group has figured out yet as they fell 1-0 to the Buffalo Sabres in a tight battle.
Anticlimactic is the best word to describe last night’s game. It was low-event hockey with neither team really taking control. Through two periods of play, both teams had 12 shots.
Starts again for the Kings seem to be all over the place and against the Sabres it wasn’t a very good one. They were out-pressured, out-chanced, and to sum it up out-battled. That changed in the second and third periods as the Kings had their looks. They managed to produce several quality chances but for whatever reason, finding the back of the net just wasn’t in the cards no matter how many times Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe, or Quinton Byfield tried to produce one.
“It’s hard to win and it’s results-based I get it […] I thought for the last 40 minutes we played really really well so as disappointed as I am frustrated could be a word […] when you play like that and as hard as we did, you’re going to win more than you lose,” said head coach Jim Hiller.
Power Play Was the Difference-Maker
The Kings’ power play remains a consistent and concerning issue. No matter what they do or how they line up, converting on the power play has been one of the biggest, if not the biggest, struggle for this group through 20 games, now with the fourth-worst power play percentage in the league (14.3%). The struggle was evident again last night as they went 0/5 on the man advantage.
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The only goal scored in this game was a power play goal courtesy of a Jason Zucker deflection. The Sabres only had three power plays compared to the Kings’ five yet they were the ones to cash in. It stings a little more for the Kings knowing they had more opportunities to make it count.
Five forwards on the first power play unit was a change the Kings’ coaching staff made before their game against the Red Wings. So far that unit has gone 0/6. Even juggling up the lines and trying something new hasn’t created a spark for the power play. It hasn’t been all bad though, that first unit has gotten its looks. This new formation has produced more chances on the power play than before, but even then it just hasn’t been enough.
“We had some really good looks […] that’s the difference in the game clearly, they scored one, we didn’t get any despite all our opportunities and it’s a difference maker both positively and negatively and right now we’re not getting it done there, that’s the bottom line,” said Hiller.
Back and Forth Goaltending
In a game in which there weren’t many shots for either team, it’s weird to talk about how good the goaltending was for both sides. Based on the shot count, no one would think that goaltending played a huge role in determining the outcome of this game, but it did.
The Sabres had most of their quality looks in the first period and out of the nine shots they had on net, five of them were grade-A chances. In the other two periods, the Kings did a good job of closing the gap, collapsing down low, and not allowing the Sabres to generate the same way they did in the first. The Kings pushed back with multiple chances of their own that could have ended up in the net but it was Sabres’ goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen there every time to shut the door.
It wasn’t a matter of quantity for either goalie but instead quality. Getting shots through to the net was something that was difficult for both teams for a lot of the game but both David Rittich and Luukkonen made huge, high-quality saves when the puck did make it to the net. At the end of the day, out of the 42 total shots taken in last night’s game, only one deflection found the back of the net.
“I think the chances were there, they just didn’t go in. Their goalie played well, our goalie played well but yeah, frustrating for sure,” said Kempe.
Based on how the season has gone so far, the Kings will probably find a way to bounce back next game. They will have two days off this time before playing their final game of this three-game road trip against the Seattle Kraken for another afternoon game this Saturday.
