Observations from Week 2

The second week of the LA Kings season wasn’t any better than the first as they went 0-1-2, at least managing to salvage points against the Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes.

LA’s week started in Minnesota on Monday, and it was about as bad a start as you could have asked for. The Kings found themselves down 3-0 after the opening 20 minutes, but a three-goal third period sent the game to overtime, with the Wild winning in a shootout.

The Kings hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday, and after jumping out to a 2-0 first-period lead, let it slip away as the Penguins knocked off LA 4-2.

Two nights later, the LA Kings put themselves behind the eight ball just 12 seconds in when Jordan Staal potted one before the ice was dry, and he added another less than four minutes later. Carolina would go up 3-0 and take a 3-2 lead into the third, but LA was able to get the game to overtime, where the Hurricanes eventually finished the job.

Here are a few things that stood out to me during that stretch.

No Lead Is Safe

All three of the games this week saw multi-goal comebacks – the Kings with two three-goal comebacks to salvage points, but also blowing a two-goal lead of their own against Pittsburgh, at home no less. This type of helter-skelter action is not what we’re used to seeing from the LA Kings, particularly in recent years, but it may be something we see more of this season.

I find it hard to believe we can expect to see the same stingy, defensive sound team when they currently roster two of the worst defensemen in the league in Cody Ceci and Joel Edmundson, a Drew Doughty who has yet to regain his pre-injury form, Brian Dumoulin who it’s been hard to make heads or tails of given how rough his start was, but has at least looks capable in recent games. With the other two, Brandt Clarke has been far and away LA’s best defenseman, but even at his best will never be known as a defensive shutdown man, while Mikey Anderson has been fine; he’s really the only one capable of playing that true shutdown style LA wants.

All that to say, an underwhelming D corps, but a team that has some exciting players offensively, could see more of these types of games. Whether head coach Jim Hiller likes it or not.

Alex Laferriere Is A Winger

Speaking of Hiller, it seemed he may have overthought things a bit after the injury to Anze Kopitar. Any team that loses its top center is going to be a bit worse for wear, but to think that the solution was a player who has never played center in his professional career could handle centering the team’s top line, particularly in a matchup against arguably the NHL’s best team, was baffling to say the least. Needless to say, it didn’t go well:

per Natural Stat Trick

Kuzmenko, Laferriere, and Kempe were outshot 7-1 and outscored 1-0 on Saturday. Fortunately, they only played just over six minutes together before Hiller decided to switch things up.

With Quinton Byfield, Phillip Danault (who was excellent against Carolina), and Alex Turcotte, the Kings had plenty of centers to manage the situation without Kopitar. It’s becoming clear that Hiller doesn’t trust Turcotte higher in the lineup as a center, which is perfectly reasonable given that he’s largely played fourth-line minutes as a center. Yet to trust a winger to handle that role? Not to mention Turcotte himself playing the wing next to Samuel Helenius on the fourth line.

Centers, especially those playing with players like Adrian Kempe and Andrei Kuzmenko, need to be able to distribute the puck. In the tracking that I’ve done, Laferriere is eighth among LA forwards in Shot Assists/60 and has yet to register a Scoring Chance Assist. He has the brains to play the center position responsibly, but puck distribution is as important. Keep him where he’s comfortable and done his best work, on the wing.

This Season Is Not Last Season

The 2024-25 version of the LA Kings put together a historic season at Crypto.com Arena, winning 31 home games and amassing a .805 winning percentage in Los Angeles. In addition, LA got outstanding goaltending. Their .921 save percentage ranked third in the NHL, and Darcy Kuemper finished as a Vezina Trophy finalist in his return to LA.

Unfortunately, goaltending and home/road records are about as predictable as the weather in Rochester, NY. To expect Kuemper to put up Vezina-caliber numbers again is asking quite a lot. And so far, the goaltending – be it Kuemper or Anton Forsberg – has been among the worst in the NHL.