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Looking at the Kings’ seven-game winning streak

November 13, 2021, 12:41 PM ET [6 Comments]
Ben Shelley
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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The Los Angeles Kings are currently riding a seven-game winning streak, which has launched them to an 8-5-1 record this season.

After a really rough start to the year, where the Kings dropped six of their first seven games, it’s been a huge turnaround for the team. In the stretch, they’ve picked up wins over the Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators.

A huge change has been the offensive production. To start the year, Anze Kopitar was really the only forward consistently adding offense for the Kings. Over the winning streak, however, just about every member of the forward group has been producing.

Alex Iafallo and Adrian Kempe have a combined nine goals and 16 points through the seven games, while Phillip Danault and Anze Kopitar each have seven points and Andreas Athanasiou has been great since finally getting into action, scoring two goals and five points in four games. Even down the lineup, Arthur Kaliyev and Ramus Kupari have been chipping in as well.

Then with Drew Doughty and Sean Walker out, every defender has had to step up, with Matt Roy in particular seeing some huge minutes. He’s averaged over 22 minutes per game during the winning streak, which is three minutes more than he did last season. Tobias Bjornfot has also been growing his role, while Kale Clague has taken advantage of the opportunity on the team’s power play.

One of the biggest stories of the season so far though has been Jonathan Quick. It was expected coming into the year that Cal Petersen would continue growing his role as the team’s starter. However, Quick holds an outstanding .935 save percentage and has played more games than Petersen to this point. It’s a pretty great start to the year so far, after a pretty large decline over the last three seasons.

Their improved penalty kill has also been a huge factor. During the streak, they’ve allowed just two goals in the 17 times they’ve been shorthanded, after allowing a brutal eight goals on 21 opportunities in their first seven games of the season. The Kings haven’t allowed more than two goals in any game of their winning streak, and their success killing penalties has been a major reason.

After starting a terrible start to the season and then two key injuries, things didn’t look great for the Kings. However, they’ve defied the odds and are emerging as a very competitive team in the Western Conference.



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