LOS ANGELES –– Ahead of Monday’s game with the Ottawa Senators, the Kings’ issues were as identifiable as they were severe.
Having just started a stretch that’ll see them stay in Southern California for seven consecutive games –– six at Crypto.com Arena and one down the road at Honda Center –– the Kings have prevailed just once at home in eight opportunities this season. That stood in contrast to last season, when they won 31 of 41 games on home ice to set a franchise record and tie for the league lead.
“We want to win at home. We’ve been good here, historically, so it’s frustrating, and something we’ve got to figure out,” said forward Trevor Moore, who engineered Joel Armia’s goal in a 2-1 overtime loss to Boston on Friday.
The Kings beat the Sens in the first leg of the season series, 1-0 in Canada’s capital, part of a No. 3 ranking on the road that ameliorated a No. 31 ranking at home in terms of winning and points percentages.
Coach Jim Hiller pointed to the obvious –– “We’re not scoring a lot of goals at home, I can tell you that” –– as his club is more than a full goal less potent on average at home than on the road (2.00 goals per game versus 3.07 on the road).
Regardless of venue, however, the Kings have been acrid on the power play. They’ve gone 2 for 23 at home and 2 for 25 on the road in the past month.
Hiller, who ran the man-advantage units as an assistant under Todd McLellan and had similar duties previously in Toronto and Detroit, and assistant Newell Brown have remained committed to the five-forward first unit they utilized late last season and in the playoffs.
Now, they might be wedded to it involuntarily. Leading scorer Adrian Kempe, one of two legitimate snipers that Kings have along with Kevin Fiala, has been relegated to the point position. His reduced shot opportunities and lackluster distribution combined with inconsistent play from other first-unit regulars have hindered momentum with the extra man.
Yet if the Kings were to promote Brandt Clarke from the second unit to the first and move Kempe into a more menacing position, would there be a capable quarterback for the second unit?
“That’s a good question,” Hiller responded.
He went on to state that the injury to Drew Doughty left them without another clear-cut option for that spot. In addition to Doughty’s lack of availability (foot; week-to-week), the Kings went out of their way to jettison Jordan Spence, who quarterbacked the second unit frequently, and lost Vladislav Gavrikov, who was at least capable of spot duty after running a power play in Russia.
The picture is no prettier at even strength for the Kings’ D corps, as they rank 25th in both goals and points from the blue line this season.
The Kings have given up nearly as many shorthanded goals as they have scored power play goals since Oct. 24, holding a narrow 4-3 edge. But not only have they mitigated that futility with three shorties in that span, but they have killed 91.9% of penalties in the process, leading the NHL.
Hiller said his group was accustomed to that kind of disparity.
“We’ve got some experience with that, unfortunately, we went through that for most of last season, until (Andrei Kuzmenko) arrived, and then it really got going when (Kempe) went up to the point,” Hiller said. “That’s when the power play was at its best and was one of the best in the league, so it doesn’t make sense. But it’s clearly not going now, so there probably has to be some changes.”
