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After an impressive winning streak through the beginning of November, the Los Angeles Kings have continued to lose ground in the standings, having lost eight of their last 10 games.
The most recent of those losses came last night, as the Kings were shut out by the Vancouver Çanucks, who sit at the bottom of the Pacific Division. What makes the loss even more disappointing is that it came directly following their 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers, where the team did a great job of limiting Edmonton’s scoring chances and looked very good overall.
While they have scored at least four goals in four of their last 10 games, scoring has been inconsistent, as they’ve also managed two goals or less in the other six games. Dustin Brown, Phillip Danault and Alex Iafallo have all really cooled off, with all three forwards managing three points or less over the last 10 games. Andreas Athanasiou has also been out the last six games and in terms of depth forwards, the team lost Blake Lizotte to COVID Protocol and Brendan Lemieux to a suspension, just as the duo were really clicking.
A bright spot is that Drew Doughty has four points in four games since his return and with both Doughty and Sean Durzi in the lineup, the defense group is much more capable of chipping in offensively. In net though, Cal Petersen has been disappointing, holding just an .893 save percentage through 11 games and as a result, Jonathan Quick continues to be counted on to perform.
At this point, the Kings are 10-10-4 and they’ve also played 14 of their 24 games at home. While they’ve been more competitive than they were last year, they still sit sixth in the Pacific Division and 12th in the Western Conference.
Their upcoming schedule looks daunting as well, with each of their next eight games coming against a team currently ranked Top-14 in the league, in terms of points percentage (and five of those games coming on the road).
Despite a promising stretch roughly a month ago, things don’t look great for the Kings, who are now struggling to keep up.
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