The Week That Was
The Kings continued their string of excellent play this past week, knocking off a pair off Eastern Conference playoff teams. Defeating the New Jersey Devils and Tampa Bay Lightning in impressive fashion, the Kings allowed just one goal across the week. With the pair of regulation victories, the Kings extended their active home winning streak to nine games, the franchise’s third longest home streak.
Game Recaps:
Notable News From The Week That Was:
- A big week for Mikey Anderson earned himself the Kings’ top scoring honors across the two games. Anderson notched three points (1-2=3), including scoring his fifth goal of the season to match his previous career high in goals set in 2022-23.
- Adrian Kempe buried a goal in each game this past week to add to his team-leading 19 goals on the season. Kempe leads the Kings by five goals over Kevin Fiala.
- Anze Kopitar remains as the Kings leading point-getter with 39 points (12-27=39) in 38 games.
- Darcy Kuemper remains unbeaten in regulation since he returned from injury. Kuemper started both games for the Kings, stopping 66 of 67 shots across both games and improved to 7-0-2 since returning from injury.
- The Kings power play went 0-for-4 in the two games, falling one place to 26th in the NHL (16.0%).
- The Kings silenced two of the NHL’s top four power plays going 8-for-8 on the kill. The perfect week of penalty kills jumps the Kings up four spots to 8th in the NHL (82.6%).
The Week That Is
The Kings have had a nice string of days at home after their season-long seven-game road trip in mid-December. That’ll change in the ladder half of the week after they conclude their 12-day, five-game home stand on Wednesday against the Calgary Flames. Following the mid-week game, the Kings will kick off another five-game road trip, this one beginning in Winnipeg. Upon conclusion of their battle in Manitoba, the week will conclude with the second half of a back-to-back taking place on Saturday night back in Calgary.
Wednesday’s game against the Flames will the second of three times that the two Pacific Division clubs meet. Having dropped the previous meeting in early November 3-1 in Calgary, the Kings will have multiple opportunities to add further distance between themselves and the Flames in the standings this week. Beginning on home ice, the Kings will look to add to their current home winning streak and get it to double digits with a victory, which would tie for second all-time in franchise history. Wednesday’s game for the Flames will be the second half of a back-to-back as the Alberta franchise has a date the night before with the Anaheim Ducks. The Kings will look to take advantage of a Flames team on less rest as Calgary is currently 0-3-0 on the second half of back-to-back’s this season. Offensively, the Flames leading scorer is finally settling in. It’s been a struggle for Jonathan Huberdeau since the trade with Florida Panthers in the summer of 2022 that sent him very, very north from Sunrise, FL. Now in his third season with the Flames, Huberdeau is producing at a higher rate than the previous two seasons with 29 points (16-13=29) in 39 games, while his 16 goals on the year has already surpassed his previous high with Flames set in 2022-23. When the puck drops on Wednesday, a telling sign of the Kings success for the game will depend on getting the puck on net. Going back to the two team’s previous meeting, the Flames blocked a season-high 36 Kings shots that night. Entering the week with a 18-14-7 record, the Flames are one point out of the last Wild Card spot in the Western Conference and have lost three of their last four games. Finally, two areas that the Kings can take advantage of the Flames are in the face off circle and on the power play. The Flames rank 29th in the NHL in face-off win percentage (45.2%) and even with a struggling power play, the Kings have a great opportunity to turn their success rate on the man advantage around against the NHL’s 30th rank penalty kill unit (70.4%).
It’ll be off to a relatively warm Winnipeg for a Friday game after Wednesday night. Currently a brisk -10° in Winnipeg, the Kings will be welcomed with temperatures in the low 20’s. Anyways, back to hockey… The Jets (56 points) are leaders of the Central Division entering the week and trail the Vegas Golden Knights (57 points) by just one point for the top record in the Western Conference. Elite in many categories, the Kings will again be tested on the penalty kill as the Jets hold the NHL’s top power play (31.5%). Looking to get back to their dominant ways from earlier in the season, the Jets are currently on a season-long three-game losing streak (0-2-1) and are coming off of a pair of home losses to start their eight-game home stand. Currently ranked as the NHL’s third best team defensively at 2.54 goals against per game, the Jets defensive game is trending in the wrong direction, having allowed 13 goals across the last three games. Defensively not where they want their game, that isn’t the case for former King Gabriel Vilardi. Vilardi has four goals in the last five games and has notched 36 points (18-18=36) in 41 games this season. Vilardi’s 18 goals ranks second on the Jets while his 36 points ranks fourth on the team.
The Kings will travel west to Alberta following Friday’s game and will face the Flames for the second time in four nights. So far this season, the Kings are 5-1-0 on the second half of a back-to-back this season, while Flames are 10-6-6 on home ice.
Upcoming games and events this week:
- 1/8 vs. Calgary Flames @ 7:30 PM (FanDuel Sports West)
- 1/10 @ Winnipeg Jets @ 5:00 PM (FanDuel Sports West)
- 1/11 @ Calgary Flames @ 7:00 PM (FanDuel Sports West)
All Kings games can be heard on the ESPN LA App.
