At the 41-game mark, you can start making serious judgments about a team, when positive or negative results turn from trends to standards.
After their 1-0 loss against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, the Los Angeles Kings have hit that 41-game threshold, making this a perfect time to discuss the pluses and minuses for this team so far.
+Team Defense:
If there's one thing you can't criticize this Kings team for, it's their stellar defending. No team has allowed fewer expected goals than the Kings' 69.02 according to MoneyPuck.com and their 2.41 goals against per game leads the league, narrowly beating out the Winnipeg Jets.
It isn't just solid even-strength defending either, their penalty kill is ticking at an impressive 82.11%, good for 9th in the NHL.
For all of the talk of getting a more offensive system after moving on from the 1-3-1, the Kings haven't lost their defensive identity and have actually improved upon it, all without number-one defenseman Drew Doughty too.
Defending this well is a team effort, however, the trio of Mikey Anderson, Vladislav Gavrikov and Darcy Kuemper deserve to be highlighted here. Anderson and Gavrikov have developed into one of, if not the, best shutdown pairs in all of hockey and Kuemper is having a resurgence season back in LA.
Anze Kopitar, Phil Danault and Quinton Byfield all deserve a lot of credit too, even though the offense hasn't always been there for the latter two, they've been great defensively. Byfield in particular has taken a massive step in his defensive game recently, becoming their go-to shutdown center over the last few games.
If this team makes it past the first round, it will be on the back of excellent defensive play, giving up two or fewer goals in most games.
- The Power Play:
Kings fans are used to a disappointing power play by now, but this season's power play has been especially disappointing. Currently clocking at just 14.8%, good for fourth-worst in the NHL, fans aren't even excited when LA grabs a power play now.
New assistant coach Newell Brown has not found a working formula and the power play has gotten worse as the season has gone on. They're 2-16 in their last 10 games and look lost on the man advantage right now.
Some of it is systemic, the Kings have seemingly abandoned using the net front player to create from below the goal line and haven't figured out a way to consistently tee up Adrian Kempe for one-timers. But some of it is also personnel.
Jim Hiller has discussed the importance of handedness on the power play before and the lack of right-shot power play options is a glaring hole for the Kings. Add in a down year for some players and the absence of Doughty and you have some big issues to solve.
One player and one tweak won't fix this power play though, the Kings need to add pieces and find internal solutions if they want to improve their man advantage. If they don't special teams could sink them again in the playoffs.
+ Anze Kopitar & Adrian Kempe:
You need your leaders to lead and that's exactly what Kopitar and Kempe have done this season. Kopitar continues drinking from the fountain of youth, currently on pace for 24 goals and 80 points.
Kempe has managed to elevate his game and find a new level again, establishing himself as the team's best player pacing for 40 goals and 78 points. He's the only player who's remained productive in the team's current offensive slump and has been carrying the scoring for a little while now.
Kempe might not be in the same tier as the truly elite star wingers like Nikita Kucherove and Kiril Kaprisov, but he's in a tier just below them and has established himself as a great player in the NHL.
We can't take Kopitar for granted either who's producing at an impressive rate while starting less than half his shifts in the offensive zone.
It's worth noting that their underlying numbers aren't great. They've been outshot and out-chanced at five-on-five, but control high-danger chances and are finishing at an impressive rate. Great players find a way to beat the odds and analytics, so it isn't a massive red flag, but something to keep an eye on.
- Kevin Fiala:
I discussed Fiala's struggles last week so won't go too deep into them here, but he has been by far the biggest individual disappointment for this team so far.
On pace for some of the worst numbers in his career, a team-worst -20 (no other regular is a - player) and just two five-on-five assists, this season has been nothing short of a disaster for Fiala.
He has struggled with some poor luck, his 0.953 PDO is third-lowest on the team and should regress to the mean at some point helping his numbers. However, poor on-ice shooting doesn't excuse his defensive play or poor discipline and two five-on-five assists through 41 games from your highest-paid forward is never acceptable.
Fiala's also starting to struggle in a big way on the power play, constantly forcing play through the middle that aren't working.
He's an incredibly talented player and I'm sure the numbers will pick up, but anything short of a monster second half will lead to a disappointing season from Fiala.