LOS ANGELES -- With their win on Saturday the Los Angeles Kings moved to 9-4-3, continuing a hot start to their season.
There's been plenty of contributing factors to their success, but one of the biggest factors has been the stellar play of the Kings' third line, and the duo of Alex Laferriere and Warren Foegele in particular.
Through 16 games the Kings have gotten a combined 15 goals from the pair. Laferriere's nine leads the team with Foegele's six placing him third behind Laferriere and Fiala.
The goals get the headlines but the pairs overall play has been fantastic. They consistently push the pace of play and the Kings are dominating shot attempts and scoring chance with them on the ice, regardless of who their center is.
"They've been really good, they've got a lot of speed too," said head coach Jim Hiller when asked about the pair. " You can see it with Foeg(el) maybe more, Laf(erriere) is maybe a more deceptive speed, he skates past people sometimes. With Q(uinton) now that's a lot of speed on that line. They've scored and they've been pretty consistent. Big goal from Laf(erriere) tonight, that was a big one, he hasn't been as dangerous lately, but that was a big one."
That speed Hiller mentioned is key in a lot of areas. Offensively, it puts the opposition on their heels and opens up a lot of space for Laferriere and Foegele to get scoring opportunities, but it's also massive away from the puck. It makes them very effective on the forecheck and allows them to consistently hunt pucks in behind the oppositions defense.
When you're dealing with three fast players stretching the ice it's never easy as a defenseman, and when two of those players are finishing their chances at a high rate they become almost impossible to defend.
Having them as a "third line" is also a luxury for Hiller. They can both play a more prototypical third line game with that speed and forechecking, but the offense they've shown early on has won the Kings games.
Being able to consistently win those depth matchups is massive and can be the difference, particularly down the stretch.
As I've discussed before, the goal scoring probably won't be sustainable, Laferriere won't keep up a 45+ goal pace and Foegele won't keep up his 30+ goal pace, but that speed and puck hunting will continue to be huge for the Kings.
We know Hiller likes to shuffle his lines when the wins slow down, so we might see these two broken up at some point, but for now, they are the Kings' best duo up front.