Today on "Daily Faceoff Live," Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna talk about the Los Angeles Kings' recent run and how they’ve become the hottest team in the Pacific Divison, and maybe the entire NHL.
Tyler Yaremchuk: We talked yesterday on the show about the number of teams on Sunday’s skate that put up seven goals or more and how crazy that was. Well, the L.A. Kings got in on the fun as well, popping home eight goals against the Calgary Flames and four of them came in the first period, as well as Jacob Markstrom was chased from the crease allowing six of those eight goals. The L.A. Kings are starting to look like an absolute wagon, are you prepared to maybe call them the best team in the Pacific Division?
Mike McKenna: Well, are they the best team in the NHL right now? I think it’s worth asking that. When you look back to Jan. 21 Tyler who’s the best team on record? It’s the Los Angeles Kings! They’re 16-4-4, the numbers don’t lie, I don’t care how bad you want to call the Western Conference but it’s not bad, you’re still facing NHL teams. Since the trade deadline, they’ve been even better and haven’t lost, they’re 6-0-2. They added Gavrikov at the deadline, he’s got four points, and Korpisalo is 3-0-1 with a .921 save percentage. The stats are there, but the intangibles to this are that the Kings defend and that’s core to them. They’re still winning with Pheonix Copley in net and look at their top two centers, it’s Kopitar and Danault, name a one-two punch that’s better than those two 200-foot players. Here’s the intangible that I have loved recently, that’s Quinton Byfield, they switched him over to wing as Kevin Fiala has been dealing with an injury and Byfield has eight assists in his last ten games. He looks comfortable, he looks confident. This team is deep, they’re running solid defensemen and they even have D who are out right now, like Sean Durzi. So, it allows Gavrikov to play top-four and maybe he slides down when Durzi comes back but this team can defend, they can score, they’re really balanced and they could be the dark horse out of the West.
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