Ryan Sikes 
Have to take the good news with the bad news right now.
ICYMI, the league implemented a pause in the schedule through the holidays. Teams can return to their facilities on Sunday, December 26. Assuming no further setbacks, the LA Kings next game will come in Arizona on Monday.
With the attention now shifting to the World Juniors, the IIHF set a new exhibition schedule for just one warmup game before the games matter. Below is a complete schedule of Kings in action on Thursday, December 23:
#GoKingsGo prospects in action Dec 23 (times in PT)
🏒 Finland (Helenius, Simontaival) vs. USA (Faber) | 11 AM
🏒 Slovakia (Chromiak) vs. Germany | 1 PM
🏒 Russia (Kirsanov) vs. Canada | 4 PM
🏒 Austria vs. Sweden (Grans) | 6 PM#WorldJuniors https://t.co/DbTJKRZvrz
— Hockey Royalty (@Hockey_Royalty) December 21, 2021
- Building off my last iteration in November (HERE), I pulled the latest analytical data from Natural Stat Trick, observing actual production (GF%) versus expected production (xGF%).
A few takeaways from this:
- It’s unfortunate that Drew Doughty went into COVID protocol when he did as he was really starting to heat up. Adding another element to the above, Doughty had posted three-straight outstanding GameScores, per Hockey Stat Cards:
- Blake Lizotte continues to be an outstanding producer on-ice, with a +9.71 GF% vs xGF%. He’s been a vital piece of the Kings fourth line and has goals in his last two games.
- Trevor Moore‘s production has really plummeted and it’s been a disappointing start to the season for him. After scoring 10 goals and 23 points a year ago in somewhat of a breakout campaign, the 26-year-old has just two goals and four assists in 30 games. His possession metrics (47.6 CF%) are above his career-average, but his 0.3 goals per 60 minutes is a career-worst.
- Lias Andersson actually improved from the last iteration, but he could really only go up after the previous three-game sample size. Still, he hasn’t exactly impressed thus far this season outside of his forechecking ability.
- A very Happy Birthday to Alex Iafallo!
Happy 28th Birthday to @LAKings forward Alex Iafallo! #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/VBWtImyRHl
— Hockey Royalty (@Hockey_Royalty) December 21, 2021
- Ten years ago yesterday, Darryl Sutter was named the new head coach of the Kings. I’d say that hire worked out alright.
On December 20, 2011, Darryl Sutter was named head coach of the @LAKings. Sutter, who is the winningest coach in franchise history, led the #LAKings to a regular season record of 225-147-53, a playoff record of 42-27, and two Stanley Cup championships.#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/Q3CahTBD38
— The Kingstorian (@Kingstorian) December 20, 2021
Again, keeping it fairly short with no games until Monday (hopefully).