EL SEGUNDO — Adrian Kempe is back in the fold for eight more years and the Kings are finding their stride after stumbling out of the starting blocks.
They’ve gone 9-3-2 in their last 14 games. They trail only the Colorado Avalanche in points percentage during that span, while allowing a league-best 2.21 goals per game in the past month.
So, are they a squad capable not only of advancing in the playoffs for the first time since 2014, but possibly going even deeper?
“Sure, why not?” Kings general manager Ken Holland responded.
Holland and Kempe put pen to paper on Sunday on an eight-year, $85 million contract extension that will keep the Kings’ leading scorer in Los Angeles until he’s 37 years old.
“When you look at his résumé, at his age, he’s a player that we couldn’t lose,” Holland said. “Obviously, we’re losing (Anže) Kopitar at the end of the year. He’s announced that this is his last year, so it was important to keep Adrian in the lineup. It took some time to find a solution, and both sides feel good about the solution.”
Not only did Kopitar, 38, announce his impending retirement, but the Kings have had difficulty retaining unrestricted free agents, which Kempe would have become on July 1.
They did manage to retain Andrei Kuzmenko, whose string of three straight healthy scratches will end Thursday in San Jose. But the departures of Matt Roy and Vladislav Gavrikov in consecutive summers against a backdrop of diminished health for Drew Doughty – his current foot injury is expected to sideline him for roughly two to three weeks, Holland revealed – left the Kings with nothing to show for two valuable defensemen.
Holland was positive albeit terse in his evaluation of his summer acquisitions on the blue line, Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin, saying only “I’m happy.”
Happier still were Kempe and seemingly everyone in the organization with his long-term commitment, in a place where the 29-year-old Swede said his “intention was always to stay.”
“At the end of the day, it was a pretty fair deal for me and the team. My priority is to be here as long as I can and help the team win a Stanley Cup,” Kempe said.
Holland called Kempe “a one-shot scorer” and Coach Jim Hiller described him as “a game-breaker,” with both saying his importance was elevated on a team not known for its offense playing in a league where tight games and overtime sessions had become the norm. Holland pointed out that only five of 32 teams were below a .500 points percentage and that some 30% of games had gone beyond 60 minutes this season.
“It’s as tight as it’s ever been out there, never mind the scoring, just the free ice,” Hiller said. “At some point, you hope for somebody to break the game open and get you that big goal. Adrian is one of those players for us, when it’s tight – it’s 1-1 or 2-2 – somebody needs to score a big one, and he has that ability.”
The Kings won a franchise-record 31 home games last season, which tied for the most in the NHL. But that gave way to early-season malaise at Crypto.com Arena, which has been offset by rediscovered excellence on the road. The Kings’ nine road victories are tied for the league lead with the New York Rangers, whose home record (1-7-1) is even worse than the Kings’ (1-4-2).
The Kings have accumulated 18 of their last possible 22 away points, and their second long road trip of the season saw them play their most recognizable games while also achieving results.
“We’ve been on the road for so long that we had time to find our identity and we’ve been finding our game on the road,” Kempe said. “It’s really important that we get comfortable at home, though I’m not saying we should be as good as we were last year at home, because that was one of a kind.”
Since Oct. 19, the Kings are one of three teams to post multiple shutouts, one from each goalie. While their power play has actually gotten worse – No. 25 overall and 30th in the past month – the penalty kill has regained its form to rise from 26th to 15th in a month.
“We’re in a good spot, over the last month or so, you’ve seen pretty consistent games from us overall,” Kempe said. “Those are the types of games we play and we’re looking to build on that for sure.”