With the Los Angeles Kings celebrating after Alec Martinez game five double overtime winning goal I think a lot of people took a second and remembered what they had just seen that playoff season from LA. Being down 0-3 to the San Jose Sharks and coming back to win that series in seven. Being down 3-2 to the Anaheim Ducks and winning that series in seven. Finally being up 3-1 on the Chicago Blackhawks, blowing that lead and eventually winning that series in game seven in Chicago.
The Kings would go on to win the Stanley Cup against the New York Rangers in five games and cap off what could be one of the most entertaining Cup runs in a long time. Tying the 1986-87 Philadelphia Flyers and the 2003-04 Calgary Flames (and soon to be joined by the 2014-15 Tampa Bay Lightning) for the most playoff games played in a single postseason at twenty-six. Coming back from being down 0-3 in the first round against the Sharks being only the fourth team in history to do that. Winning three game sevens on the road something that seems to be unthinkable these days. The Kings definitely gave us something special in 2014.
As we fast forward to the current day we now sit here and talk about the Kings in a very different way. How can this team get back into the playoffs. The same team that not long after they won the Stanley Cup people were picking to repeat we are now asking how can they make the playoffs again. Tell me that in July of 2014 and I wouldn’t believe you.
You can point a finger at multiple things, Slava Voynov and his off ice issues and creating a pretty big hole in the Kings defense. Injuries to Pearson and at times Toffoli both huge pieces in “That 70’s line” and a main reason why the Kings won the Cup. Or you could simply point to some down seasons from key players like Dustin Brown registering only eleven goals while star forward Anze Kopitar could only pot sixteen goals.
Defense is obviously the answer to the Kings struggles though. Having a goals against average of 2.40 is the highest since 2009-10 when they posted a 2.57 as a part of the Terry Murray days. For whatever reason being a part of Darryl Sutter‘s game even with all the offensive talent the Kings have they have never been that great of an offensive team in the regular season. This season they averaged just 2.66 goal per game, bottom half of the league in other words.
When you have a great defense you can get by, the Kings in recent years have had great defenses and Jonathan Quick in net for a good amount of time. If you need any more convincing both years LA won the Stanley Cup they had a goals against average of 2.07 in 2012 and 2.05 in 2014.
Slava Voynov put the team in a tough spot right off the bat getting into legal troubles but looking at the rest of the defense doesn’t really look that threatening. Drew Doughty is obviously one of the best in the league and Muzzin is a good player but after losing Scuderi and Mitchell after both cups maybe this team is lacking that kind of guy.
The forward group looks more than OK. Kopitar, Carter, Gaborik, Toffoli, Pearson and now add Lucic. That’s a pretty deadly top six. Bottom six again doesn’t scare me much. I’ve seen it too many times, when the top six is rolling and getting goals and points the team is winning, but especially this Kings team has been pretty streaky over the last couple of seasons what happens when the top six hits a dry spell? I’ve seen some Kings fans confident with the bottom six and maybe with guys like King, Lewis and Clifford things will work out but that could be a big if.
In the goal there isn’t much to discuss, even with a team goals against average of 2.40 Jonathan Quick still put up a 2.24 goals against average in a “down year”. Goaltending and Quick is really the last thing someone should talk about with the Kings.
The off-season didn’t come without some pain of departures though, key guy Justin Williams left via free agency to join Alex Ovechkin on the Washington Capitals. Mr. Game 7 will be a huge miss especially if the bottom six does in fact struggle. Andrej Sekera left via free agency as well but he didn’t quite go as far as Williams did. After acquiring Sekera near the trade deadline the Kings didn’t have enough cap room to keep the defensemen and he went to division rival Edmonton. A bigger blow to an already weaker defense. A minor blow to the Kings was backup goalie Martin Jones being traded to Boston and then ending up with rival San Jose. Not too big of a deal but Jones was a steady hand behind Quick whenever he needed a rest or picked up an injury and the Kings could feel confident with him in the net unlike new backup Jonas Enroth who is an unknown in LA.
As for other departures like Stoll and Richards, Stoll will definitely hurt the depth and again that might come up as well as getting into legal trouble himself maybe it’s better he’s gone. Mike Richards, it was a long time coming, not a big loss.
I think people will look at the Milan Lucic deal and get excited about the next season, but this Kings team has holes and not much wiggle room cap wise to fix them. This teams defense is still a question mark for me and the offense could continue to be hot and cold. Like we saw last year with a couple of teams, one bad stretch could spell doom for your season and the pacific division isn’t really a division to mess around in with teams like Anaheim seemingly locked into the number one spot then you have Calgary, Los Angeles, San Jose, Edmonton and maybe Vancouver fighting for two spots.
The Kings have never really been a regular season threat and I can’t really see that changing. LA had issues to be addressed this off-season and as of right now they haven’t addressed those issues. If you ask me right now I think the Kings will make the playoffs but it will be close.
At the end of the day, maybe missing the playoffs will help the Kings. This team and its star players have played a bunch of hockey since the start of the 2011-12 season. Three and a half seasons, eleven playoff series and you also put the Olympics in there. I can only imagine the physical toll the Kings style of play puts on the bodies and even Justin Williams said in his own way he was a little happy they missed the playoffs. Maybe missing the playoffs and giving their bodies and minds a chance to heal will fuel this team to another couple of great years from the Los Angeles Kings.
