The Kings were set to play their second back-to-back set in as many weeks as they traveled to Nashville for Monday’s meeting with the Predators before flying to Minnesota to confront the Wild on Tuesday.
They faltered in the front end against lowly San Jose on Tuesday only to bounce back against an imposing Vegas roster in their second clustered match before blowing a two-goal lead against another non-contender, the Chicago Blackhawks, on Saturday.
“We have to learn to play with the lead like that and to close out the game,” said center Phillip Danault, who scored his first goal of the season on Saturday. “At 2-0, there should be no chance to come back, and they didn’t even have a power play in the third. We should have shut it down, for sure.”
With Danault rediscovering the back of the net and his line with Trevor Moore and Kevin Fiala finding its stride in recent days, preoccupations could shift to Quinton Byfield’s unremarkable start to the campaign. After signing a five-year, $31.25 million contract extension over the summer, Byfield has no goals and no power-play points through 12 games. He has a modest two primary assists and five helpers overall.
Even Byfield’s expected goals have been lacking, with MoneyPuck indicating he ranks ninth among the Kings’ top-nine forwards with 1.9 on the season.
“I don’t think he’s been getting a lot of good looks,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “He had some really good looks (against Chicago). So, we’ll take that as a step forward.”
If the Kings, who were in second place in the Pacific Division entering Sunday’s slate of games, and Byfield were searching for answers, the Nashville Predators have likely employed an entire research department.
After their cannonball splash in free agency –– they lured the heavily seasoned Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei to the Music City over the summer –– the team has struggled to find chemistry, identity and, more concretely, consistent results.
They started the year with five consecutive losses, won three straight games and then fell back into a funk that they snapped out of with Saturday’s 5-2 thumping of another rollercoaster patron this season, the streaky Colorado Avalanche.
Their previous game, a 5-1 loss to Edmonton, drew frustration, concern and even a bit of impatience from coach Andrew Brunette and captain Roman Josi, but the Preds responded Saturday.
Minnesota has had the total inverse experience of Nashville, having sat through a quiet offseason for the most part and then starting the year with a seven-game points streak that catapulted them to earning 16 of a possible 20 points to date.
One major offseason move was not an acquisition but rather an affirmative retention, as the Wild locked down former Kings prospect Brock Faber to an eight-year, $68 million contract extension set to kick in next season.
Faber was the main piece in the Kevin Fiala deal, and he’ll soon out-earn Fiala. Not only did the Wild acquire an elite right defenseman in the deal, they got a first-round pick from the Kings. They spent it on Liam Öhgren, who made the Wild out of camp but was recently sent down to the minors.
The driving force for Minnesota continues to be Kirill Kaprizov. He entered Sunday in a three-way tie for the NHL scoring lead with Florida’s Sam Reinhart and Colorado’s Cale Makar. He’s scored a point per game in his career against the Kings but is averaging over two points per game through 10 games in 2024-25.