Observations from Week 4

The LA Kings ended their road trip with a win before dropping back-to-back games on home ice for what was a 1-1-1 week.

It was a strange start to the week for the Kings, winning 4-3 in San Jose despite being outshot nearly 3-to-1 and blowing a 3-0 lead. Brandt Clarke saved the day with his second goal of the season, allowing LA to escape the Shark Tank with two regulation points.

However, Crypto.com Arena hasn’t been kind to its hosts so far in the 2025-26 season. The Detroit Red Wings came to town on Thursday, and though the Kings erased a two-goal deficit in the final three minutes to send the game to overtime  (on the back of a pair of Corey Perry goals), the Red Wings would grab the extra point in the shootout.

The Kings hosted the New Jersey Devils to kick off November, and despite some heavy offensive zone time (66.7% CF% at 5v5 per Natural Stat Trick), the visitors netted two short-handed goals (one into an empty net) en route to a 4-1 win.

Here’s what stood out to me in the three games.

Stars Weren’t Shining…

LA’s top five forwards, Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala, Quinton Byfield, and Andrei Kuzmenko, combined for just one goal, two assists, and three points at 5-on-5 last week. Byfield and Fiala didn’t record a point at 5-on-5. For a team that is thin as it is in terms of high-end talent, they cannot afford to have their big guns go quiet. That one goal, scored by Kuzmenko against the Devils, was the only goal scored by that group of players in all situations. Needless to say, if this team is going to start stringing together some wins, they’ll need more production from their top players.

…But Should We Be Surprised?

Remember, this is an LA Kings team built on defense first. That hasn’t changed, nor will it change. It’s one thing to be defense-first, but as we’ve learned in the year 2025, you need to be able to score. Take the New Jersey game, for example. LA lived in New Jersey’s zone, but they really didn’t generate very many Grade A looks. I tracked 11 scoring chances for LA in that game, and five of those came in the third period when the Kings were already down multiple goals.

Over the last three games, according to Natural Stat Trick, LA was second in CF% but 17th in xGF%. Much of their preference still seems to be shots from the perimeter with traffic and hope for the best. The below from Hockey Viz shows a heavy amount of point shots and very little in the slot area. It’s a bit old-school, and it hasn’t exactly worked.