Kings' disparity in special teams makes difference in loss to Panthers

In the Los Angeles Kings’ first home game of the season on Tuesday night, their penalty kill made its presence felt at Crypto.com Arena, but their power play didn’t.

While the Kings held the Florida Panthers to an 0-for-6 night on the power play, their own man advantage went 0-for-5 in a 2-1 loss.

The penalty kill was a clear step in the right direction. While the Kings killed just two of their seven penalties in their first two games, they took advantage of a struggling Florida power play to overcome the frequency with which they took penalties and get their unit back on track. Both the penalty killers and goaltender Darcy Kuemper made big plays throughout the kills.

“Penalty kill is about routes and execution of what it is that you’re trying to do to defend,” Kings head coach Peter Laviolette said. “You’re five versus four, so you have to know where you’re going. I thought it was really good.”

If the Kings had one shortcoming during their penalty-kill time, it was their lack of a shorthanded goal. Erik Haula, Joel Armia and Brian Dumoulin all failed to score on shorthanded breakaways, while Scott Laughton couldn’t outskate the defense for another such opportunity. But if that’s the worst part of a penalty kill that allowed five power-play goals in two games, the Kings will take it.

“We kind of made some mistakes early in the year in the first couple games, and I think we’re cleaning that up,” forward Alex Laferriere said.

The power play, on the other hand, was far less successful. The 0-for-5 mark featured just five total shots on net, two by Adrian Kempe and three by Artemi Panarin. Kings defenseman and captain Drew Doughty, who currently plays on the Kings’ second power-play group, blamed the struggles on an overemphasis on carrying the puck into the offensive zone.

“Sometimes, even on the power play, you just got to get a puck in deep, and you’re going to probably win a battle of two against one,” he said. “You don’t always [have] to enter with possession. Just sometimes get it in and get to work.”

The lowest moment for the power play came at the end of the first period and the beginning of the second, during which the Kings had a two-man advantage, with one of the penalties being a four-minute high-sticking double minor. Despite this, they weren’t able to score and expand the 1-0 lead they held at the time.

“I think the goal of the power play not only is to score but create momentum for the team,” Laferriere said. “And if we’re out there and we’re not able to score, we want to make that momentum positive. And we weren’t able to do that on that occasion, so yeah, we got to clean that up.”

The Kings are now 2-for-12 on the power play for the season, repeating the struggles of a unit that was one of the NHL’s worst last season. With a new coach this season, the Kings hope these early issues are simply a matter of execution rather than the failure of a different system.

“From an offensive standpoint, I thought it was off a beat tonight,” Laviolette said. “I thought it was really good in San Jose. There [were] a lot of positives to take from that game, but again, still, we left the point on the table, and so that’s no good. It got quieter tonight, but at the end of the day, we didn’t move the puck. I don’t think we moved the puck efficiently enough five-on-five or on the power play to get what we want at the end of the night.”

The Kings now have a few days without a game before continuing their season on Saturday, Oct. 10 on the road against the Vegas Golden Knights.