The Old Kings vs The New Kings

By Guest Writer
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Updated: December 7, 2015

When the Kings had played against the Vancouver Canucks on the 1^st of December, they were in the exact same spot they were in a year ago. Having earned 31 points during the 2014-2015 season, and 2015-2016 season raise some eyebrows on the consistency for the Kings. They always start strong in the season, but then they hit this stretch where Staples Center is in so much use that the Kings are forced into a longer road trip then they can usually handle. There are differences in last year’s performance and this year, and those are the X-Factors into this year’s team.

Let us start with the record. On December 1^st 2014, the Kings had a record of 13-7-5 having a total of 31 points on the season. The Kings that year had struggled with shootouts, as well as defensive plays, and occasional severe scoring troubles with 3 of those losses being shutouts, being 1-3 in shootouts, and being 2-5 in overtime in general at this time. In general, the Kings offensive issues were not the worst part of the team. The first two lines consisted of Gaborik-Kopitar-Williams and Pearson-Carter-Toffoli which were good as any other lines in the league. “That 70’s Line” was known to be a very fierce line, and it is still a line to be reckoned with today. They were producing the most goals on the Kings offensive lines during the first two months of last season and during the 2015-2016 season. The Kopitar Line as usual took a bit to get rolling, but once it was rolling the line never looked back.

Once we got to the third and fourth line, we had liabilities almost as bad a Ryan Gosling being a cornerback in Remember the Titans. Jarret Stoll and Mike Richards were probably the biggest liabilities on the team at that time. Both players have been replaced by former AHL stars Jordan Weal, Andy Andreoff, and Nick Shore. Andreoff has taken the primary roll Richards had, which was to be a scoring threat. We occasionally see Jordan Weal taking this spot as well, he just needs a little more work on the team. Nick Shore has been in my opinion, the biggest X-Factor in the league right now. We expected young stars like McDavid, Eichel, and Larkin to step up the game, but nobody thought much of Nick Shore. In general, his job is to stop goals from being scored on his own team which he has done phenomenal at. If you look at his stats, he is currently at a -8 which initially looks rough. But his line isn’t meant to score any goals, just prevent them. If you look at this kid’s game log for the 2015-2016 season, there isn’t a whole lot on it which is exactly he is supposed to have. Nick Shore has 14 games where he has 0’s across the board, and only 8 games where he has had a goal scored while he was on the ice. This is exactly why he has been such an X-Factor. Like Jarret Stoll, Nick Shore is just trying to keep possession and to stop the opposition from scoring. Nick Shore has done his job perfectly aside from 8 out of 26 games this season.

The way that the 2015-2016 season is looking for the Kings is quite strong so far. Before the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Kings were at 31 points as well, with a record of 15-8-1. You can look at that record in two ways compared to last year. Granted we have more wins this year, we have more regulation losses. The other way you can look at it, is that the Kings can finish in overtime and get that much needed extra point. You may ask “Well if they have the same point total, then why should we care about this stat?” Well the answer to that is consistency. Last year the Kings ended 40-27-15. The overtime losses are what killed them last year. If the Kings had gotten to the league average of 10 overtime losses which would have added them 5 more points, they would have been third in the Pacific, just one point behind the Vancouver Canucks. With the consistency of only losing one game in overtime, I can predict the Kings to be 48-27-7 because of the ability to finish the game in 3-3 overtime. Nick Shore has been a key factor as to why the Kings have been able to play a more solid game, as well as many others including Milan Lucic, Anze Kopitar, and Drew Doughty. The Kings have slightly altered their player roles, and it has been key to the Kings’ success this season.

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