Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid called the Pacific Division playoff race a “pillow fight” the other day. Objectively speaking, hilarious quote. He said that he feels fortunate that the Oilers play in the Pacific Division this season and that he assumes several teams in the Pacific feel the same way.
If the Kings played in the Eastern Conference, they would be 12 points out of a wild card position. These would be lame-duck games to finish the season. The trade deadline wouldn’t have just involved a couple of players out, a couple of players in, but likely wider-scale changes. The conversation would be very different. Los Angeles is, however, in the Pacific Division and as McDavid said, they should feel fortunate to bet here. Despite being 70 games into the season and struggling to find any form of consistency or momentum, the Kings are alive. They’re in a pillow fight, but a fight nonetheless.
That seemed to be Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith’s message after last night’s game. He understands the opportunities that this team has missed. Despite yet another one-goal game that they did not find a way to win, here the Kings sit, on 73 points, still somehow within sight of the second wild card spot. Nashville has won four consecutive games to surge into that spot, while Seattle and San Jose have won just three of their last ten games each, falling behind both the Kings and Predators. That this is the situation the Kings find themselves in, battling with these teams for one position, whether they get in or not, is disappointing at best.
The problem is, right now, the Kings seem to be fighting with more of a pillow case than a pillow. It’s not a lack of effort. No matter how many feathers are left in their pillow, they keep swinging away as hard as they can to make inroads. They just aren’t finding the success they’re pushing for. As poorly as the results have continued to go, the Kings have battled every night since Smith took over behind the bench. The style of play has been, at the very least, more entertaining and exciting. Last night’s game in Utah was a really fun game to watch. But the result was similar. You can point to a number of areas that looked good. Players who played well. Quinton Byfield played one of his best games of the season in my opinion. Lots of guys deserved better. But the ending to the book didn’t change. The Kings lost a game that was there to be won.
I think there were two moments last night that are just indicative of the way this season has gone.
The Kings have played poorly in the second period pretty much all season long. No sugar-coating that. Last night, they played one of their finest second periods of the season. It was really impressive and they deserved to take the lead. But, after what felt like 20 good minutes, they left that period a goal down, off one of the more perplexing sequences of the season. Defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci both had the chance to clear a rebound out of a dangerous area but both players froze, seemingly expecting the other to make the play. Nick Schmaltz then made the play to turn what should have been an innocent enough sequence into a Utah goal. It was such a good second period by Los Angeles. Shot attempts were 33-14 Kings. Scoring chances were 17-5 Kings. The only moment you remember, though, was the goal against, because of how it was allowed and how against the flow of play it was.
Then came the overtime game-winning goal. The Kings don’t win the faceoff but they did win possession of the puck in the offensive zone. Quinton Byfield recovered the puck along the wall. Byfield makes the right play – as he did so many times last night – not once but twice. Both times, incidental interference from the linesman and the Kings lose possession the second time around, sending Utah the other way. After dominating the puck for the entire overtime period, including a post by Alex Laferriere, one shot for Utah and the game ends in defeat.
The Kings needed a save from Darcy Kuemper on that play. They needed a bounce to prevent the situation from requiring a save. They needed a goal on the shift prior, which would’ve made the bounce and the save irrelevant. They got none of the three and here we stand, with three consecutive losses and four defeats out of five, a 1-2-2 record over those games at the most critical juncture of the season. It’s not as if any of the teams near the Kings in the Pacific Division are really playing all that well. But there has been nothing done to take advantage of that situation, regardless of how disappointing the situation itself is.
In asking players after the last couple of games about those moments, it just seems like the answers aren’t there. They aren’t discouraged or losing belief. Scott Laughton actually detailed the second intermission as one in which the Kings were inspired by a lot of things from their second period, which helped keep the belief high into the third, as they eventually found the game-tying goal. It’s not about that. It’s just that every single night, the Kings are in the fight, but they consistently come up on the wrong side of the result in a results-driven business.
I dove into this yesterday, but under D.J. Smith, the Kings have now played 11 games. Nine of those 11 games were tied in the third period, while the other two were multi-goal victories. The Kings have only won two of those eight games, with a 2-4-3 record in those nine contests.
In total, the Kings have played 40 one-goal games this season out of the 70 they have played in total, which is tied with Dallas for the most in the NHL.
It also leaves 30 games decided by more than one goal. With yesterday’s game included, of the 30 games that were not one-goal games, eight of those games were tied at some point in the third period. A further 11 games were one-goal games at some point during the third period. That makes 59 of 70 games that were within one goal in the third period this season.
In those games, the Kings have just 23 wins compared to 36 defeats. Sure, a league-high 17 of those losses have come in either overtime or the shootout, but you’re probably as tired of reading about an overtime point as I am about writing about them. Bottom line is, there have been 59 games this season where the score was within a single goal in the third period and the Kings have 63 points from those games. Last night, wherever you feel the bulk of the blame should be directed, was just another chapter in the same book. Predictable endings are just bad writing. 12 games left, with a story that is running out of time for a twist ending.
