The disappointment of missing last season's Stanley Cup playoffs can finally be put to rest.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock of the Kings 2-1 victory against the Boston Bruins Saturday night, they clinched a spot in the final 16 teams for the sixth time in seven seasons. It was partly due to a tremendous effort by the Kings against a feisty Bruins team that also looks poised to make the playoffs, but also due to a Tampa Bay victory against trailing Pacific Division team, the Arizona Coyotes.
So now, with those two things happening, Los Angeles will be in the final stages of the season for the 29th time in franchise history.
It was not the easiest of seasons, but for once the Kings ar clinching far enough out that fans may actually be able to relax a bit. The Kings have been somewhat notorious for, not backing into the playoffs, but certainly waiting until the last minute to make it in several of their previous seasons. In both cup winning years the team actually had to wait until the final three games of the season to officially clinch.
However, this year, despite some poor midseason form and flashes of a winter slump, they are in with 11 games to spare. They are the second team to secure a spot behind the Washington Capitals, who look to be on the way to a President's Trophy.
As stated earlier, it has not been easy this entire year.
The Kings have had bouts of inconsistent play, injury troubles, slumps, and quite a few games that just did not fall in their favor.
The Kings started the year in poor fashion, getting outscored in the first three games of the year to San Jose, Arizona, and Vancouver by a combined score of 12-2. Freakout was imminent, especially considering the changes and talk of effort and frustration levels running high in the offseason. The freakout was short lived, as the team would go on a marvelous 24-7-2 run that took us up to January 1st. Good thing the season is not three games long because the Kings surely would have lost based on those first few games.
From there, the Kings form leveled off as they went 13-10-2 in the notorious "Slump months" of winter. In March, the Kings have come together for a nice 7-1-1 run, despite dealing with newcomers and an offense that is scoring less.
(Click to enlarge on imgur, sorry!)
While the goals against all but stayed the same, the Kings offense dried up with the combined slumps of multiple key players like Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli, and the forever snake bitten Dustin Brown. Compounding to those offensive frustrations was the injury to Marian Gaborik in early February.
One constant, however, has been the night in and night out play of Jonathan Quick. The Kings netminder is having his best season since 2011-12. What has also helped, aside from the Kings smothering possession numbers, is the seasons of the Kings top players of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin, and Alec Martinez. While Kopitar has again been the Kingpin, playing an incredibly responsible 200-foot game, the top end of the Kings defense deserves just as much praise. With No. 8 looking at a career high in average time on ice (Over 28 minutes a night), Jake Muzzin and Alec Martinez may be one of the best second pairs in hockey. The duo get killed on zone starts, they get an even amount of matchup minutes against top six players and grinders alike, and both are playing some of their highest career average minutes per game as well. Oh, and they are still doing very well in fancy stats if you want to keep track of that. Role players and lesser focused on members of the Kings D corp like Jamie McBain, Brayden McNabb, and the newly acquired Luke Schenn and Rob Scuderi have also played their part in keeping the Kings amongst the top of the league in team defense.
The offense, as usual with the Kings, is a hot and cold offense. When they are hot, or have players who are on hot streaks, it can be a dominating effort. When they do not, well, it's a 3-2 errrr 2-1 league right Darryl?
The team has ridden the hot streaks of Tanner Pearson, Jeff Carter, Tyler Toffoli, and even the veteran Vincent Lecavalier to some big victories and much needed offense. We have yet to really see a Kings team that fires on all cylinders for an extended period of time offensively, which may be the scary part for some of their potential playoff opponents.
The Kings have corsi'd their way to the top yet again, being the number one Corsi For% team in the league with a 55.92% at 5v5. They also lead the league in corsi against with a 49.39 per 60.
As of the end of play March 19th the Kings are also the best possession teams in the league, and the ONLY POSITIVE possession team in the league when leading (50.4%). They are also the best tie game possession team and one of the best leading possession teams.
The team, compared to last season, have won a healthy number of overtime and one goal games. This was something that plagued the team last season, but could be attributed to a number of things. The hockey gods have seemed to take pity on the Kings of last season.
The Kings are 25-8-5 in one goal games, for a win percentage of .658. The 2014-15 Kings went 13-9-15 in one goal games, leading to a .351 win percentage. In overtime the Kings have gone 11-3, and dropped two games in a shootout on the season (2-2). That beats the heck out of the 1-7 OT record, and the 2-8 shootout record last season. Call it better luck, better bounces, or better performances, in hindsight those overtime and shootout games made a big difference. The Kings have not found themselves on the wrong side of that this year.
Moving into the post-season now it really is no secret what the Kings are. They are a puck possession driven team that scores very few goals, gives up even fewers, and eventually grinds you into a fine powder. Over the course of a seven game series this may prove a daunting task to overcome. Unlike last season where we could only theorize what the Kings could have done in the playoffs, 2016 will again be an opportunity for L.A. to prove that they truly are "built for the postseason.
The Kings are back in the dance after a one year absence. Now, where do they finish in the division, and how will they do when the high pressure hockey hits?
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