The Kings’ special teams issues showed up again in a 2-1 loss to the Panthers in Los Angeles, and the cost was hard to miss. The defeat left the Kings win-less through their first three games.
Los Angeles took six penalties and piled up 17 minutes in the box. It marked the second time in three games that the Kings had been whistled for six penalties.
Brandt Clarke and Joel Edmundson were responsible for three of those calls. Clarke’s two penalties sent him to the box for six minutes, while Edmundson logged five minutes after his penalty. That meant 11 minutes in the penalty box came from the second-pair defensemen alone, and it had a clear effect on how the Kings played.
The disruption carried over to the offensive side, where Los Angeles never quite found its rhythm. Clarke and Edmundson are key pieces on that end, especially on the power play, and both skaters logged the most time there on the night. But the Kings couldn’t turn those chances into momentum.
It was the same kind of problem that surfaced in Colorado, where Los Angeles had four power-play opportunities and came up empty. In both games where the Kings were tagged for six penalties, their special teams lost the flow they needed to make an impact.
“Momentum really shifted on us when we couldn’t get that PP going. Yeah, we definitely played poorly, and we've lost three now,” Drew Doughty said. “I'm still confident in what we're building, and I think we’ve been playing better each game.”
There was at least one encouraging sign for Los Angeles: the goals against total has dropped in each of the first three games. The Kings gave up eight to the Avalanche, five to the Sharks, and only two to the Panthers.
Even with that improvement, this was still a messy night. The Kings need to clean up the penalties and find more from the power play, because the Panthers exposed exactly where the special teams are breaking down.
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