Following Monday’s loss to the team that eliminated them from the playoffs after each of the past three campaigns, the Edmonton Oilers, the Kings turned their attention to the contender from last season against which they had the most success, the Vancouver Canucks.
Having dropped two straight decisions after opening their five-game away swing with an overtime win in Winnipeg, the Kings are now on the way back south with Thursday’s match in Vancouver and another in Seattle on Saturday.
They were shut out in their third game in four nights, a hermetically sealed affair in which Connor McDavid’s goal determined the outcome, 1-0, for the Oilers (McDavid was also slew-footed by Adrian Kempe, for which Kempe received a $5,000 fine on Tuesday).
Of late for the Kings, lean offensive production has come further toward the fore. On the trip, they have squeezed out just three goals in three games.
“Yeah, I mean, they’re not going in, for sure, but, I don’t know. We’re playing good; we’ll be fine,” coach Jim Hiller told reporters.
Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov said he felt the Kings had generated opportunities but needed to find more ways to finish. Though the loss to Edmonton was just the second zero-goal output for the Kings all season, the other also being a 1-0 stifling by the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 20, their second-to-last position in power-play goals combined with a less-than-robust attack at even strength still clouded their prospects of taking the next step this season.
However, the Kings’ defensive game remained their bedrock: they have surrendered the fewest goals in the NHL, both overall and five-on-five, and have allowed the fewest power-play goals since Oct. 25.
They’ve been especially stingy since Darcy Kuemper returned on Dec. 7, allowing exactly two goals per game as a group with Kuemper posting the league’s highest save percentage (.940) and its No. 2 goals-against average (1.63) among goalies with 10 or more appearances in that timespan.
Next on the schedule will be the Canucks, who were in a tailspin that featured nine losses in 11 outings before their 3-0 shutout of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, which they followed with a 6-1 pounding from Winnipeg on Tuesday.
Leading scorer and top defenseman Quinn Hughes has been as constant as the northern star for Vancouver in a season with very little stability.
Injuries have limited No. 1 goalie Thatcher Demko to just eight games while $92.8-million man Elias Pettersson has underperformed amid rumors of a rift with fellow star forward J.T. Miller, who took a personal leave of absence earlier this season.
Though the Canucks were very much in the wild-card hunt, speculation intensified that one or both of the Canucks’ headliners up front, Pettersson and Miller, could be available in the trade market.