Jewels from the Crown: for Los Angeles Kings fans SB Nation

Out of gas. Hit a wall. Wasted. Pooped. Spent. Beat. Bushed. Drained. Dead. However you want to phrase it, the Los Angeles Kings have simply run out of energy. Following one of the league's toughest schedules in March, by all accounts and purposes, the over-performing Kings have crashed back down to the Earth in the most ungraceful manner with a stinky 0-3 road trip, in which their recent matchup against Minnesota saw them not only blow a 3-0 lead in a very short amount of time, but also surrender six goals against.
Nothing about the team has been consistent over the past 74 games--aside from the consistent rash of injuries. On nights that their goaltending is superb, their offense fails to show up. When they could use some help from their goalie, both Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen have turned in average-at-best replacement level performances. This is not to pin the team's woes on them. While they aren't performing at a Vezina quality, the skaters in front of them aren't exactly all playing at Norris/Hart/Selke levels, either.
Much of that is due to the aforementioned injuries, which has seen players forced to elevate their games beyond their readiness or roles (i.e. Olli Määttä being thrust into a first pairing role or asking 21-year-old rookie in all senses Jordan Spence to be a reliable third pairing NHL defenseman). Alex Edler missed three months and has been slow in his return to the lineup. The losses of Mikey Anderson and Drew Doughty (who is now out for the rest of the season following a wrist surgery) are also weighing heavily on the blue line where Matt Roy and Määttä are forced to shoulder the load along with the rusty Edler and Troy Stecher. The former Red Wing has been a big boon to the weary Reign players, but as expected, has not been the team's saving grace--though that was never the intention in trading for him.
What looked like a sure bet two weeks ago to make the playoffs is now looking like dicey odds. The Vegas Golden Knights, with a game in hand, have managed to win their way back into a bubble spot whilst the Kings have slipped into the third spot behind the red hot Edmonton Oilers with blow points against the San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks and Seattle Kraken looming large.
In this short podcast episode, Sarah and Robyn discuss the team's potential to make the postseason (despite head coach Todd McLellan's insistence that this is the team's "playoffs") and how disappointing it could be if the team manages to miss out on playing more games in May.
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The trade deadline may have come and gone very quietly for L.A., but other teams around the league were busy making moves for what they hope will be a deep playoff run. On this special episode, Ryan Dunn and Sarah Avampato join James and Robyn to discuss the Kings' (lack of) trades and what will hopefully be a lengthy playoff for the team's AHL affiliate, Ontario Reign. Questions pondered include how will Troy Stecher fit in with the team and what are they going to do with their 12 restricted free agents and how that impacted the deadline day? "Dry Island" makes a special appearance in this episode and all four take a strange trip down memory lane.
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On Thursday, at the morning ahead of their final season tilt against the San Jose Sharks , the Los Angeles Kings and their fans got possibly the best trade deadline acquisition news possible: Alex Edler would be returning to the lineup. Out with a broken ankle for 110 days, the team’s inexperienced blue liners sorely missed Edler’s calm, stabilizing presence.
On this episode of Crown Conversations, James and Robyn discuss potential trade deadline moves for the Kings. With Ken Hughes getting quite a haul in return for Ben Chiarot, should Rob Blake consider moving on from some of the young players? But does that help the team? And what kind of moves could the team make over the summer? Injuries forced the issue and the prospects have responded in a big way. It’s good and a great problem to have. But now difficult decisions abound for Blake and the front office. What the future of this team looks like is still anybody’s guess.
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Injuries and illness are a natural part of being human and nothing epitomizes that more than sports, particularly at the professional level. Rivaling 2018 for their oddest rash of injuries, though, the Los Angeles Kings are limping into the home stretch of their season more than a little banged up and bruised. All six of their defensemen who started on the opening roster have now been placed either on Injured Reserved or Long-Term Injured Reserve.
The first domino to fall was Sean Walker, when he suffered season-ending ACL and MCL tears in his knee in a collision with St. Louis' David Perron back in October. Drew Doughty also missed an extended period of time after he bruised his knee during a Dallas Stars game. In Doughty's first game back, Alex Edler broke his ankle a minute into the Minnesota Wild game.
Stepping up in their stead has been the team's younger defensemen Matt Roy, Mikey Anderson, and Tobias Bjornfot along with occasional Ontario Reign call up Christian Wolanin. Olli Maatta, who was expected to be the 6-7D, also stepped in.
But as the pages of the calendar turned from January to February and then March, the Kings were not so lucky to escape the early injury bug. Within the span of one week, Mikey Anderson, Drew Doughty (again), Matt Roy, and Tobias Bjornfot all left the lineup with various maladies of some sort. Anderson took a reverse back check from Brad Marchand in Boston, came back for two shifts and didn't return to the game. In that same game, Doughty also injured his right hand at some point. He was seen on the bench closely testing and looking at his hand, though he finished the match and even took shifts in overtime. To add insult to the already lengthy list of injuries, the very next game, Matt Roy suffered some kind of upper body ailment. He played the entirety of the game, but was unavailable for the team's trip to the Tank the next night.
For those keeping score, that's (in order of loss) Walker, Edler, Anderson, Doughty, and Roy unavailable with various upper and lower body afflictions. But wait, there's more! Because the immediate losses of Anderson, Doughty and Roy weren't enough, Tobias Bjornfot also got hurt in the game versus the Florida Panthers. None of this accounts for the injuries to Viktor Arvidsson, Brendan Lemieux, or Dustin Brown--all three of whom went down at or around the same time as the defensemen.
This podcast episode was recorded prior to puck drop of the Panthers game and the loss of Bjornfot in OT. The Kings' season now rests on the shoulders of four rookie d-men in Jordan Spence (who hasn't even completed his first full pro season), Jacob Moverare, Austin Strand, and Sean Durzi along with veteran Olli Maatta and Ontario Reign call up Christian Wolanin. On the forward front, Martin Frk, Gabriel Vilardi, and Rasmus Kupari are getting another chance to shine and all hoping impress enough to make their recalls permanent.
The trade deadline looms large as 3:30 p.m. EDT on March 21 rapidly approaches. General Manager and the Kings' front office have some big decisions to make. If none of their big name key players are ready by or before Monday, how patient should they be? Further, how reliant should they be the on the Ontario Reign's defensemen whose next matchup isn't until Friday, March 18 but are sitting in second place and look poised to make the Calder Cup payoffs? Should the Kings cannibalize the Reign's roster for their own self interests? As it stands, Ontario only has five defensemen on their current roster. Sarah and Robyn touch on these topics and ponder the team's pitiful lack of offense with an eye towards the future. Plus, with all things considered, how close really are the Kings to being contenders?
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Not Dead Ryan Dunn makes his miraculous return from the grave to chat with James and Robyn about the Los Angeles Kings' over reliance on Philip Danault and Anze Kopitar, who are leading the way for their lines and the team as a whole. But the lines with Brendan Lemieux and Dustin Brown have been struggling off and on for much of January. Who is this team? According to James, they're Chaos Creators. But for Robyn, the lack of consistency is tied to a still-unknown identity three years into head coach Todd McLellan's tenure.
The trio also consider who, if anyone, the team should target at the trade deadline and what could make the Kings more successful overall (spoiler: playing the kids).
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The Los Angeles Kings are, at best, a highly streaky team with a seeming identity crisis looming over them for the third straight year. Meanwhile, their Stanley Cup Final foes from 2014 New York Rangers have a solid understanding of who they are and what they excel at--namely, excellent goaltending with timely goal scoring. Their special teams are also among the tops in the league with a sparkling 84.4% on their fifth-ranked penalty kill and eighth on the power play, clipping along at a remarkable 24.8%. But don't overlook their 5v5 offense -- it's tenth in the league at 8.4%. No matter where you look, it seems the Rangers have turned into excellent team with their abbreviated rebuild.
Mike Murphy from Blueshirt Banter joins Crown Conversations to give some highlights about the Rangers and how they've transformed over the last couple years since these two teams have squared off.
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