Observations from Week 5

The team continues to be middling when it comes to expected goal share in the NHL. The once xG dominant Kings are currently 16th in xGF% at 5-on-5.

While this is mostly due to their defense corps, the play of their centers needs to improve as well.

Danault’s Role

As alluded to earlier, the production for Phillip Danault just isn’t there. Through 16 games, Danault has just three assists. This is a player who is fifth among LA forwards in TOI/GP at 5-on-5 while involved on both the power play and penalty kill. It may be time to rethink this.

For starters, we need to cut Danault at least some slack. According to HockeyViz, Danault has the hardest job among any LA Kings centerman in terms of the quality of his opponents.

He is consistently facing the team’s top forwards and top defensemen. On the one hand, it could seem that it’s working, considering Danault has the lowest GA/60 on the team. But perhaps the scary part is that it is in spite of him having the highest xGA/60 among all LA skaters (worth noting, LA goaltenders have a save percentage of .952 when Danault is on the ice).

So maybe he shouldn’t be getting those tough assignments.

All this to say, I think Danault can be a valuable player still on this team in a third-line role. He doesn’t need to be playing against the opponents’ top players at this stage. If he can get more middle-six matchups, I think we will see Danault and his line be much more effective.

Time for Turcotte

You know, asking for more ice time for Brandt Clarke worked; let’s try it with Alex Turcotte. Like every other center on the team, the production isn’t there for Turcotte with just three assists in 16 games. But there’s so much under the hood that points to positive things to come from Turcotte.

When Turcotte is on the ice, the LA Kings are dangerous

Turcotte’s situation is the opposite of Danault’s. He is feasting against lesser competition, and that’s OK. After all, he is a fourth-line center.

In the Shot and Scoring Chance Contribution tracking I’ve done, Turcotte continues to grade well as a chance generator.

Turcotte leads the team in Shot Assists/60, is third in Shot Contributions/60, second in Chance Assists/60, and fourth in Chance Contributions/60. Clearly, there’s a creative, offensive player here.

Make no mistake, Turcotte is the team’s fourth centerman. I get that, and I’m not suggesting he should be playing 15-20 minutes a night. But averaging under 10 minutes per game isn’t enough. Just last game, I had Turcotte with four shot assists to go along with his two shot attempts at 5-on-5. That’s six shot contributions (tied for second on the team). Turcotte played a team-low 6:16.

At this point, there’s no reason Turcotte shouldn’t be on the second power play over Danault. I understand and can appreciate Danault’s faceoff ability being better than Turcotte’s, but this team is just begging for more creativity in the offensive zone. Turcotte has been displaying it.

In the upcoming week, the LA Kings have three games. The road trip continues on Tuesday against the flashy Montreal Canadiens before a pair of games in Ontario against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators. All three teams pose different types of threats for LA, but one thing that Colorado and San Jose exploited was their great team speed against LA’s slower blueline. That could be on full display in Montreal in what should be quite the matchup of two opposite teams.

Main Photo Credit: Gene J. Puskar, AP