Pavel Malyugin The LA Kings headed into the 2022-23 NHL season looking to be a far more dominant team than they were the previous year. The addition of Kevin Fiala was made by the general manager, Rob Blake, in hopes of fixing the goal-scoring issues that occurred in 2021-22.
Last season’s LA Kings saw themselves defy all odds as they made the Stanley Cup playoffs in their first year out of the rebuild. The Kings finished the regular season with 99 points. It seemed clear that they were in it to win it from there on out. The general hope was that they would take a step up in the off-season, and do even better this season.
The addition of an 85-point player, Kevin Fiala, was huge as it gave the LA Kings an offensive dynamo. The 26-year-old was coming off the best season in his career and translated well to LA. He’s currently on pace to be a point-per-game player.
While the addition was beneficial, the result has been disappointing. The LA Kings are 15-12-5 in the 2022-23 season. For a team that was supposed to take a huge step up into contention, that’s nowhere near good enough. The fact that the Kings have played over 40% of the season and still have more losses than wins is upsetting. What’s even worse is that there have been no changes made.
When Cal Petersen was on waivers, the general message to the locker room was to “wake up.” An obvious sign that nobody was safe. While the Kings saw a few victories following the move, the team has remained mediocre. It’s no longer a stretch to say that the LA Kings aren’t a good team. And as much as we would like to blame head coach Todd McLellan, the blame has to fall on management.
Rob Blake entered the season looking for Sean Walker to take the role in a top-four spot, going as far as giving him a chance to play on the left side. From day one, it’s been a risk. Giving a player who missed the 2021-22 campaign the role of playing top-four minutes on his off-side never seemed like a good idea. As predicted, it backfired.
One of the talking points about the LA Kings has been how awful the defensive core has been. The Kings have had far too many defensive breakdowns and far too many avoidable mistakes. Defensive issues are always annoying, but it’s not even the worst part. The LA Kings have had horrible showings from their goaltenders. Neither Cal Petersen nor Jonathan Quick is above a .900 save percentage. It’s never a good thing when there’s a combination of bad defense and poor goaltending. That’s why the LA Kings have had some of the worst goals against in the entire NHL.
What hurts the most is that the Kings have fixed their scoring issues. The Kings have been one of the highest-scoring teams in the NHL this year. They’ve been able to address their scoring issues, which was a massive problem last year. But even though they’ve been one of the highest-scoring teams in the league, they remain middling.
As you can see, the Kings have had a very viable GF/60, whereas GA/60, it’s been bad. They fall into the bottom ten for teams of GA/60, and the poor results from their end have cost them countless games. Inconsistency is to blame.
The Kings have had fantastic goaltending showings, as they’ve had outstanding defensive showings. It’s not that the Kings are constantly failing in their zone, it’s that we’ve seen these issues come and go so often.
Inconsistency has been a discussion point early. Fans bobble between “the defense is awful,” to “that was a great defensive performance.” Now that we’re this late into the season and we’ve seen no progress, fans have realized that what we’re getting isn’t good enough. Despite most people saying that the Kings are just that bad, inconsistency is still an issue.
As you can visualize in the chart above, the team has been up and down. LA had a relatively strong start, followed by a tumble. The Kings haven’t seen any upward trend like earlier in the year since then.
Although the team isn’t built well enough (which we’ll get into later), the inconsistency issues fall on the coaching. McLellan’s job is to get the team to perform to their best abilities on a nightly basis, and that’s not the result we’re getting. We, as fans, have seen this team play competitive hockey this year. So why can’t we sustain it? Why does the coaching staff fail to get the best out of the LA Kings every game? The LA Kings aren’t a playoff team. If nothing changes, they won’t even sniff the playoffs.
Whether it’s a coaching change or a trade, a change needs to happen. The Kings need anything to have at least a sliver of life. Unfortunately, they weren’t built well enough. A change would undeniably help, but it won’t make the Kings a contender overnight. The issue lies deeper than Todd McLellan or a defensive acquisition. Again, that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen.
Gavrikov to LA?
It’s been reported that two Kings scouts were in Florida watching the Panthers-Blue Jackets game. The Kings likely had their eyes on Columbus’s defender, Vladislav Gavrikov.
Kings have two scouts in Sunrise at Panthers-Jackets. Vladislav Gavrikov and Marc Staal are the wingspanny types that shoot left in that game. The versatile Gavrikov, eligible for UFA with a $2.8M AAV, is a top trade target league-wide.
— Jon Rosen (@jonnyrosen) December 14, 2022
Gavrikov has been a consistently terrific and underrated defender for Columbus, being able to handle tough minutes while being a concrete penalty killer. For the LA Kings, an excellent penalty killer requires.
Through his four years in North America, the Yaroslavl native has been playing top-four minutes. With an expiring contract, Gavrikov may look to be on the trade block. While trading for Gavrikov would make a lot of sense for the Kings, it won’t fix the issue.
LA’s issue is that the defensive core has been underperforming. Statistically, they were heading into the 2022-23 season looking like a viable core. The defensive pairings seemed to have exceedingly well-analytical numbers, with a smidge of offensive talent.
Instead, we’ve seen the polar opposite. It’s possible that the defensive core outplayed expectations last year and has failed to replicate it this year. With players like Alex Edler and Sean Walker getting top-four minutes, that’s likely the case. While a Vladislav Gavrikov addition would help the Kings out in their zone, it won’t single-handedly fix the core.
Say the Kings acquire Gavrikov and place him on the second defensive line alongside Matt Roy. On paper, the “rich get richer.” The defensive wins above replacement increase by .4, and the numbers make the team look good. But how much does Gavrikov fix what looks to be a dumpster fire? If we’ve seen the defensive system fail, what makes us think Gavrikov can save this? The likelihood of Vlad being LA’s superman and saving the day are slim to none. It’ll slow the bleeding, but the results won’t change in the big picture.
The LA Kings have had far too many issues this year. A simple trade won’t get the Kings out of the hole that they’ve dug themselves. Both Todd McLellan and Rob Blake need to be held accountable. Kings fans were expecting their team to take the next step, and instead, we’ve been given an underperforming team with a poorly built roster. It’s time for some accountability, and it’s time we see some change.
Cover image courtesy of Jeff McIntosh / Associated Press