The Los Angeles Kings got the kind of night on special teams that can swing a game in both directions - and only one side showed up.
At Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night, the Kings’ penalty kill was sharp enough to shut down the Florida Panthers on all six chances, but their own power play couldn’t cash in, going 0-for-5 in a 2-1 loss. That split told the story of the night: one unit looked organized and effective, while the other never found a rhythm.
Peter Laviolette saw real progress in the penalty kill, especially after the Kings managed just two kills in seven tries across their first two games. This time, they leaned on structure, pressure and Darcy Kuemper, who helped make key stops throughout the Panthers’ opportunities.
“Penalty kill is about routes and execution of what it is that you’re trying to do to defend,” Kings head coach Peter Laviolette said. “You’re five versus four, so you have to know where you’re going. I thought it was really good.”
The only thing missing from that stretch was a short-handed goal, and the Kings had chances for one. Erik Haula, Joel Armia and Brian Dumoulin each came up empty on breakaways, and Scott Laughton also couldn’t turn a chance into a goal. Still, after allowing five power-play goals in their first two games, the Kings will live with a penalty kill that at least bent in the right direction.
“We kind of made some mistakes early in the year in the first couple games, and I think we’re cleaning that up,” forward Alex Laferriere said.
The power play, though, was another story entirely. The Kings generated only five shots on goal across those five opportunities, with Adrian Kempe accounting for two and Artemi Panarin for three. Drew Doughty pointed to the group’s tendency to force controlled entries instead of simplifying things and getting to work in the offensive zone.
“Sometimes, even on the power play, you just got to get a puck in deep, and you’re going to probably win a battle of two against one,” he said. “You don’t always [have] to enter with possession. Just sometimes get it in and get to work.”
The roughest sequence came late in the first period and into the second, when the Kings had a two-man advantage, including a four-minute high-sticking double minor. They still couldn’t score, and they let a 1-0 lead sit there untouched.
“I think the goal of the power play not only is to score but create momentum for the team,” Laferriere said. “And if we’re out there and we’re not able to score, we want to make that momentum positive. And we weren’t able to do that on that occasion, so yeah, we got to clean that up.”
Through three games, the Kings are 2-for-12 on the power play, a start that looks awfully familiar for a group that struggled near the bottom of the league last season. With a new coach in place, the early hope is that this is about execution, not a broken approach.
“From an offensive standpoint, I thought it was off a beat tonight,” Laviolette said. “I thought it was really good in San Jose.
There [were] a lot of positives to take from that game, but again, still, we left the point on the table, and so that’s no good. It got quieter tonight, but at the end of the day, we didn’t move the puck.
I don’t think we moved the puck efficiently enough five-on-five or on the power play to get what we want at the end of the night.”
The Kings now have several days off before returning to action Saturday, Oct. 10, on the road against the Vegas Golden Knights.
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