Potentiated by their first consecutive victories this season and the hot hands of some key forwards, the Kings will welcome their most vexing foe of the young campaign to Staples Center on Wednesday.
The St. Louis Blues will roll into town as winners of six of their seven games this season, including two victories over the Kings in St. Louis by a combined 10-3 margin. Forward David Perron scored a hat trick as the Blues picked the Kings apart in all situations – St. Louis scored four power-play goals, a shorthanded marker and struck twice more at even strength – in a 7-3 victory. The Blues followed that up with a 3-0 shutout of the Kings on the back of a strong performance from No. 2 goalie Ville Husso last month in his only start of the season.
But the Kings (3-5-1) have their own momentum and sizzling sticks heading into this matchup. Winger Alex Iafallo contributed two goals and an assist to Saturday’s 5-2 rout of Montreal and then scored the game-winner in Sunday’s come-from-behind 3-2 victory against Buffalo. Iafallo has proven a steady presence for the Kings, but never quite reached the 20-goal mark for a season. This year, with four goals in nine games, he is on pace to rack up 36 goals.
“He slows the game down when he needs to, he’s in the right spot, he speeds it up when he needs to, he can check, he comes to the bench, he sits down, he gathers his thoughts and he goes and does it again,” said Kings Coach Todd McLellan of Iafallo. “Low maintenance, high production. I think he can score 30 [goals].”
Long associated with elder statesmen Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, Iafallo has operated independently of those two mainstays this season. He has meshed on a line with Adrian Kempe, flanking the free-agent acquisition Phillip Danault. Even when Iafallo was benefitting from the presence of a play-driving force like Kopitar and his chemistry with longtime linemate Dustin Brown, McLellan said Iafallo’s presence there was an indicator of his own reliability and skill.
“When a [future] Hall of Fame player is telling you, ‘Hey, I wouldn’t mind having this guy on my line,’ that’s telling you something,” McLellan said, describing Iafallo as “an unreal player.”
Kopitar himself is riding back-to-back multipoint efforts, as much as he put together in the first two games of the season. Those four games accounted for 11 of his team-leading 13 points this season.
While Iafallo’s new centerman, Danault, has not been prolific offensively – he has three points in nine games and just one on the power play – he has made some of the same intangible, unquantifiable contributions that Iafallo has while providing a stabilizing defensive presence.
“A lot of the Iafallo qualities in him,” McLellan said. “Just watch him in tight areas, watch him in the faceoff circle. (His) ability to check we know about, but the ability to slow a play down just so that we can knock a bouncing puck out of the air and get organized again ––there’s so much value in those things that aren’t traced, tracked or even watched sometimes.”
Elsewhere among the Kings forwards, Viktor Arvidsson and Gabe Vilardi remained on the COVID protocol-related absence list, while Andreas Athanasiou’s return seemed more imminent.
Opposing the Kings on Wednesday (7 p.m., TNT) will be the Central Division-leading Blues, who have lost just one game, a one-goal shortfall against Colorado, and remained unbeaten on the road. They lead the NHL in goals per game and are tied for the league’s third-best goal differential.
Perron’s six goals lead St. Louis and his nine points are tied with wingers Jordan Kyrou and Vladimir Tarasenko for tops on the team. Torey Krug has justified the hefty contract he signed as a free agent last season, notching six points in seven games to pace all Blues defensemen.
St. Louis (6-1-0, 12 pts) at Kings (3-5-1, 7 pts)
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Staples Center
TV/Radio: TNT/iHeartRadio