The Kings followed two of their strongest consecutive efforts of the season with a penalty-ridden collapse in Seattle, and now they’ll sneak home for a single match before hitting the road again.
They haven’t been alone in their one-step-forward-one-step-back trajectory, with much of the NHL and most of the Pacific Division finding itself in a similar pattern, including the two teams at the top. The Ducks snapped a three-game winning streak Thursday on Long Island while Vegas is below .500 in terms of winning percentage for the entire campaign.
But the Kings’ opponents Saturday have provided an exception. After an abysmal start, the Calgary Flames won seven of 10 games before falling 4-1 to Todd McLellan’s Red Wings, and have been the Pacific’s hottest team since Nov. 19.
The Kings appeared to be gaining steam after steamrolling the Chicago Blackhawks at home and playing a rock solid road game to beat the Utah Mammoth.
Then, they headed north to meet the Kraken, the only team with fewer goals in the first period than the Kings (though not more scoreless first periods than the Kings’ 17 in 30 games). Predictably, the sides were at a stalemate through 20 minutes, but it was the dying embers of regulation and overtime that were problematic. The Kings allowed two power-play goals in a 1:47 span between the end of regulation and OT.
“There’s three or four different things that could have happened in the last minute of the game that didn’t, so we have to wear it,” Jim Hiller said to reporters after his club led with 27 seconds to play but ended up losing in the extra frame.
The Kings took a staggering seven penalties in the contest, all stick infractions, placing pressure on a typically stout penalty kill that surrendered three power-play goals in the 3-2 loss.
“At the end of the day, when you take seven minors, it’s tough to win a hockey game,” defenseman Joel Edmundson told reporters.
While penalty trouble has been an on-and-off issue for the Kings, as Hiller pointed out postgame, a troubling constant has been the lack of production from their centers.
The five centers by trade that the Kings have deployed this season have combined for just eight five-on-five goals in 30 games and only a dozen tallies overall. Phillip Danault is riding a 38-game goalless drought dating to last season and part-timer Samuel Helenius is also looking for his first goal of 2025-26. Captain Anže Kopitar is on pace for 18 total goals, his lowest output for a full season since 2016-17. Quinton Byfield, who is purportedly the Kings’ ascendant star in the middle, hasn’t found the back of the net in a month, during which he had just three assists.
Calgary, on the other hand, has been sparked by one of its pivots, emotional leader Nazem Kadri. Since the Flames began to heat up last month, he’s ranked sixth in the NHL in scoring, notching six points his past three games and 17 in his past 12. Since Nov. 13, Calgary’s Rasmus Andersson, for whom the Kings reportedly made a significant trade offer during the draft in June, is third among NHL defensemen with 16 points in 14 games.
Calgary at Kings
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: FDSN West, KCAL (Ch. 9)