The Kings’ top line wasted no time showing what it can be on Saturday in San Jose.
Artemi Panarin, Quinton Byfield and Adrian Kempe were driving the bus all night, and the numbers matched the eye test. Each of the three scored a goal, Panarin tied the game late in the third period, and all three finished with multiple points. Kempe and Byfield also scored on the power play.
At 5-on-5, that group was flat-out overwhelming. With Panarin, Byfield and Kempe on the ice together, the Kings owned 20 shot attempts and gave up only four.
Nine of those attempts were scoring chances, and the Kings controlled more than 81 percent of them. Among NHL forward lines that have logged at least 25 minutes at 5-on-5 through the first week of the season, that trio is one of just five controlling more than 65 percent of shot attempts.
The underlying numbers backed up what was happening in real time: the Kings kept the puck in the offensive zone, made plays and generated chances. That stood out immediately, and it was the kind of early-season sample that matters because it lines up with what you could see happening shift after shift.
“I thought their game was on point, they created the entire night, I thought they were excellent the entire night,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “QB, Bread and Kemps were really, I thought, pretty dynamic and generated an awful lot for us.”
Panarin has been the centerpiece so far, with three points in his first two games and goals in both Colorado and San Jose. Laviolette knows exactly what kind of player he has, and his system is built to let that creativity breathe rather than choke it off.
“The way he thinks the game and the way he creates offense, it’s at a very high level,” Laviolette said during training camp. “Everybody has to move inside of a mindset of how we’re going to defend and how we’re going to play offense, but his creativity, especially the offensive side of the puck, I don’t think you can try to harness that.
I think you have to let that go. I’ve coached him before, I think he’s a competitor, I think he’s highly skilled, an elite player that can make a difference in a game.
I don’t want to do anything that constrains him from reaching that level.”
That freedom matters for the Kings, because Panarin gives them a type of offensive threat they have not had in a long time. He and Kempe already had a track record together last season, when Kempe scored at over a 50-goal pace while skating with him. Byfield changes the shape of the line, bringing speed to flank one of the league’s best playmakers.
Panarin laughed off the idea that he can match the pace of his linemates, but he also made clear what that speed does for the group.
“Two pretty fast hockey players, which makes the puck on our side more, because they win lots of battles and they forecheck very well,” Panarin said of his linemates. “I try being fast too, but I’m not that fast, so I’ve got to a start earlier by a second, that’s all.
We had good moments. We start feeling each other more and more and I feel the second game was better for us, as a team as well.”
Byfield and Kempe bring the kind of wheels that can turn forechecking into a weapon. Last season, both ranked in the 95th percentile or better in speed bursts of 22+ MPH and speed bursts between 20 and 22 MPH, according to NHL Edge. Each also hit a maximum speed burst above 23 MPH, ranking in the 89th percentile or better.
That speed has already shown up in the details. Byfield, Panarin and Kempe rank first, second and third among Kings forwards in loose-puck recoveries in the offensive zone this season, which says plenty about how often they’re winning the puck back inside the attacking blueline.
And when that line gets it back, good things tend to follow.
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