The Week That Was
All the Kings did this past week was win, win, win no matter what. Now sitting on a five-game winning steak, the Kings closed out a trio of season series’s and outscored their opponents 8-1 on the week. The 3-0-0 week now has the Kings holding a 36-20-9 record with 81 points and the second best points percentage in the Pacific Division.
Game Recaps:
3/15: LAK 1 vs. Predators 0 (OT)
Notable News From The Week That Was:
- The Kings power play went 1-for-8 in the three games. The Kings power play now ranks 28th (15.2%).
- The Kings penalty kill went 15-for-15 across the three games. Their penalty kill now sits at 82.4%, good for fifth in the NHL.
The Week That Is
The Kings will began the week back out on the road following last week’s trio of home games. Set to start the week with two road games against Central Division opponents before returning to LA for a pair of back-to-back weekend home games against Eastern Conference opponents, the Kings will make up one of their two games in hand on the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights by week's end.
The Kings are set to begin the week in St. Paul, Minnesota with a Monday night tilt against the struggling and unhealthy Wild. Currently 3-5-1 in their last nine games, the Wild have been held to one goal or fewer in six of those games. Furthermore, the Wild’s scoring troubles have come in all phases of the game including at full strength where they’ve netted just nine goals in the last 10 games. Heading into Monday’s tilt looking for the season series sweep (2-0-0), the Kings will be tasked with getting the puck past Filip Gustavsson. Gustavsson is 25-15-4 and holds the NHL’s eight best save percentage at .914%. One Wild player to watch for will be their leading scorer Matt Boldy. Boldy, who despite being drafted 12th overall in 2019 is second in points in his draft class with 226 (96-130=226) trailing only the first overall pick Jack Hughes. As for the Kings, former Wild forward Kevin Fiala has enjoyed playing against his former team since being traded from Minnesota to LA as he’s riding a five-game point streak against the Wild and has 10 points (3-7=10) in eight games with the Kings.
The Kings will next head southeast to Chicago and will be seeking revenge on the Blackhawks are being beat 5-1 in the United Center just over two weeks ago. The Kings have yet to beat the 31st place Blackhawks this season as their lone home game was a shootout loss back on November 2nd. After factoring in one of the biggest trades leading up to the trade deadline, the Blackhawks newest member and goaltender Spencer Knight has made four starts in his new threads. In those four starts, Knight has gone 2-2-0, has a 2.25 GAA and holds the fourth best save percentage at .928% among eligible goalies since March 3rd. Offensively, the Kings will look to slow down the hottest Blackhawk as of late Ryan Donato. Donato, who has three points (1-2=3) and shootout winner in two games against the Kings this season has also notched a point in 14 of his last 16 games (8-14=22).
Following the two-game road trip the Kings will return home and face the red hot Carolina Hurricanes. Having won seven straight games entering the week and eight of their last 10 games, the Hurricanes will be well rested as they’ll begin the week with four days before they play their first game (@SJ) on Thursday. Very much a complete team, the Hurricanes don’t have many holes if any. They lead the NHL with an 84.5% penalty kill, are great in the face-off circle at 52.5% (5th) and are in the top-seven in both goals for per game (3.24) and goals against per game (2.63). Offensively, the Hurricanes are now without Martin Necas and Mikko Rantanen after midseason trades, but they still have Sebastian Aho. Aho leads the Hurricanes in both assists and points (25-39=64), while trailing teammate Seth Jarvis by just one goal for the team lead in that category. Defensively, look no further than the pair of Jaccob Slavin and veteran Brent Burns. The duo have played the second most minutes together in the NHL and are a +12 in expected goals for/expected goals against when on the ice.
It’ll be a quick turnaround for the Kings as their final game of the week will come just 29 hours after dropping the puck against the Hurricanes. Going up against the playoff hopeful Boston Bruins, the Kings will be looking for a season series split. Having dealt their captain Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo and more at the trade deadline, it’ll be a different looking Bruins team than we’re used to. Four points outside of the final Wild Card spot entering the week, the Bruins have gone 2-2-0 since the deadline but have lost their last two games. Those two losses haven’t been close either as they’ve surrendered six goals in each game while scoring a total of five goals in the two games combined. Since the deadline, it’s been David Pastrnak leading the way offensively as the Czech has notched four points (2-2=4) in as many games.
Upcoming games and events this week:
- 3/18 @ Minnesota Wild @ 5:00 (FanDuel Sports Network West)
- 3/20 @ Chicago Blackhawks @ 5:00 (FanDuel Sports Network West)
- 3/22 vs. Carolina Hurricanes @ 1:00 PM (FanDuel Sports Network West)
All Kings games can be heard on the ESPN LA App.
