EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – There is perception. There is reality. There is narrative. The Los Angeles Kings can be viewed differently through those each of those frames.
Perception: The Kings are as “mid” as a team can get. Too good to be bad in today’s NHL. Not nearly good enough to be great.
Reality: The Kings entered Tuesday with a .620 points percentage, 10th in the league, directly above the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. They sit in playoff position after American Thanksgiving, four points behind Vegas for first place in the Pacific Division.
Narrative: Do the next few months even matter? If the Kings do get in, they’re bound for another first-round exit. Until they win a series, why get invested emotionally?
If your preference is to buy into the narrative, then there is nothing that Wednesday’s game against Dallas or Saturday’s contest against Minnesota — or the rest of the schedule — will do to change how you ultimately define these Kings. Only when they’re shaking hands with a defeated foe and moving on to the next round will they be set apart from the teams of the past three years.
Some part of fandom — not all, just some — is all-in on the mentality that anything less than competing for a championship is failure. (Unless you’re the fan of a team with no expectations that surprises. That brings unexpected joy and bliss). Tearing things down and losing a lot is preferable to some fans than getting another crack at a playoff run, even if advancement isn’t guaranteed.
The Kings aren’t tearing things down. There is no desire to and, with the term-laden commitments they still have to virtually all their key players, they really couldn’t if they wanted to. The reality is, they’re on their first winning streak of the season (three games) and they feel good about where they are and where they believe they can go.
Three straight victories aren’t much to crow about. But the Kings have continued to garner points even as they work through their inconsistency.
“We’ve been talking about wanting to get on a winning streak,” Warren Foegele said. “Those are words, so the fact that we did means a lot for this group. We weren’t very satisfied with that third period against San Jose. For us to respond against one of the better teams in the league in Winnipeg, I think was huge for the confidence of this group.
“We just keep building each day. This week’s a great challenge for our team.”
Break down the Kings’ 14-8-3 record, and the focus could be on them playing only seven teams with a .560 points percentage or better and going 3-4-0 in those games. Or the focus could be on those three wins, against Vegas, Minnesota and Winnipeg — teams with a combined 51-19-7 record — with convincing performances. Or it could be that they’re 8-2-1 after losses and have only lost consecutive games in regulation once.
The focus could be on the Kings not having a superstar or super-duo that makes them elite. The focus could be on them having 37-year-old Anze Kopitar on a 95-point pace while remaining the defensive conscience for a club ranked fifth in fewest goals against. They’ve allowed only 19 goals in their 14 wins.
The fact is, the Kings can be looked at through many prisms. Which makes these home games the Stars on Wednesday and the Wild on Saturday — ahead of the longest road trip of the season — something to help provide more clarity about who the Kings really are. Games against two of the top teams in the best division in hockey will give a sense of whether they’re among the 15 or so clubs that are “mid,” or something better.
“You try to build each day, and I feel like we’ve built since training camp,” said Foegele, who played on the three Edmonton Oilers teams that eliminated the Kings and also got to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last year. “Our game’s come a long way. It’s obviously not a finished product, right? But we are taking steps in the right direction.
“Mind you, I feel like this organization has been known to be good defensively. But it also takes guys to be committed to doing that, and it seems like we’re doing that. I think offensively we’re trying to bear down on our chances. Generate a little bit more. With that said, we still want to play good defensive hockey. At the end of the day, the winning teams are ones that defend really well.
“Obviously, you need to score, too. I think this team gives itself a chance to win every night and we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot. I can’t really say that for other teams.”
Yeah, the Kings can be better. Kopitar somehow continues to defy Father Time and Adrian Kempe has heated up in grabbing the goal-scoring lead with 12, but Kevin Fiala can still be breathtaking and befuddling while Quinton Byfield’s inability to put the puck in the net has resurfaced. Second-year forward Alex Laferriere is looking like the kind of backbone player Justin Williams was in the title years, but mainstays Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore haven’t been as consistent as they usually are.
Jim Hiller has had all sorts of line combinations, some of which have worked and others haven’t. He hasn’t found a permanent home for line sparkplug Alex Turcotte and still doesn’t have a regular winger with Kopitar and Kempe after moving Byfield to center. But Hiller has also seen Vladislav Gavrikov and Mikey Anderson lead an effective defense without Drew Doughty, who is now walking without a cast but is still not close to returning.
This upcoming test against the Stars will be a good indicator of where they stand, particularly when their confidence is high. Dallas has tuned them up the last two seasons, winning five of six meetings by a combined 24-8 count. Even usual nemesis Edmonton hasn’t handled them like that during the regular season.
The Stars resemble the Kings more when it comes to roster construction, not being led by singular superstars but instead by a deep and talented cast that’s been to consecutive conference finals. What’s scary is that while Miro Heiskanen is the constant on the back end and Logan Stankoven is a Calder Trophy candidate, they’ve been led by Matt Duchene, Mason Marchment and (now injured) Tyler Seguin, as Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston haven’t broken loose offensively.
So far, it’s a level of depth and talent that the Kings can’t match.
“They break out really well and they forecheck really well,” Hiller said Tuesday. “They’re very predictable, predictable in the sense that you know what they’re doing, you plan for it and sometimes their execution just breaks your plan down. That was what happened to us last year. A hard team to play but one of those teams not unlike Winnipeg, where you’ve got to show up. You have to be physical. They’re big and strong. It really challenges your team. So, let’s make sure we’re ready for the challenge.”
Gary Bettman may crave parity in the NHL, but he’s got a league that has a large bunch of teams currently in that mushy middle. Foegele can see that. And he sees opportunity for the Kings this week to show they’re above the mass. “How do you separate yourself?” he asked himself. “These are great games to prove that, I guess, to ourselves.”
Two weeks ago, Hiller talked of being at home after a travel-heavy first part of the schedule and wanting the Kings to get five games above the NHL’s .500 — and then 10 games above. Well, with a 5-2-0 stretch after back-to-back losses at Calgary and Colorado, they’ve got the first part done and are working on the other part.
With these Kings, you could fast-forward to what you think will be the inevitable end. And the inevitable very well may be where perception, narrative and reality intersect. Or you could just see and enjoy the process, as Foegele is doing. Enjoy their ability to learn and take corrective action when they stumble and fall. Getting blitzed for five third-period goals in the San Jose debacle could have sent them astray. It didn’t.
“I think everyone just kind of looked in the mirror at themselves,” he said. “There’s expectations for this team. I feel like a lot of us — especially that game — we knew it wasn’t good enough. Points are crucial. You can’t have nights off. Sometimes it’s human, but at the end of the day if it’s not going well for you, you can always work hard. We weren’t really working hard that third period.
“I think it was more just reflection within ourselves. There’s high expectations for this group. You got to keep yourself accountable.”
The Kings have a lot to prove for sure. This week is one for big-picture judgment. But even with their flaws, they’re steadily collecting wins and points. That’s worth focusing on, right?
(Photo: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
