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The Los Angeles Kings dropped another game on Thursday night to the Colorado Avalanche, marking their third straight loss.
The defeat comes after a 6-2 loss against the San Jose Sharks on Monday, followed by a 6-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
RECAP: THURSDAY'S LOSS TO AVALANCHE
Despite the Kings getting off to a great start yet again against Colorado, outshooting the Avalanche 15-7 in the frame, Mikko Rantanen opened the scoring on the power play. The Kings had two power play opportunities of their own after that but couldn’t convert and Colorado kept the lead heading into intermission.
In the second frame, the Avalanche went up 2-0, as Brendan Lemieux gave away the puck and Kiefer Sherwood spun around to fire a shot past Jonathan Quick. Anze Kopitar was able to cut the lead in half on a power play midway through the frame but despite the Kings outshooting Colorado by a 34-15 margin through 40 minutes, the Avalanche remained in front.
Los Angeles wasn’t able to sustain the same pressure in the third period though, despite getting two more power play opportunities. Nicolas Aube-Kubel put the Avalanche up 3-1 early in the period, before Devon Toews sealed the win with a late empty net goal.
LOOKING AHEAD
With the loss, the Kings have dropped their last three games, being outscored by a total margin of 16-7, despite outshooting their opponents 118-69 in that stretch. A major issue has been their special teams, giving up four goals on their seven penalty kill attempts, while only converting on two of their own 11 opportunities.
That said, the Kings still sit third in the Pacific Division and eighth in the West in points percentage. If they want to maintain their positioning though, they’ll face a tough test to do so, as they begin a six-game road trip tomorrow against the New Jersey Devils.
While the Kings pretty consistently manage to get off to strong starts, their inability to finish and special teams need to be improved upon. They’re very much in playoff contention partway through the season but these are two areas that have been issues for much of the year so far.
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