Let’s look at the positives: the Los Angeles Kings had among the best defenses in the NHL last season and made the playoffs. The poor? The group is full of dead-weight contracts that have obliterated their thickness and they got easily bumped from the first round of the playoffs.
Despite the negatives, you will be hard-pressed to find a better core nucleus on a group with Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick. Kopitar is the reigning Selke Trophy winner and Doughty is coming from a great 2015-16 season that saw him win the Norris Trophy.
The question remains: will the Kings’ low-scoring, defensive-minded play hide their issues with depth and direct them to another deep playoff run?
Stanley Cup +1800
It seems almost like a distant memory, but LA hoisted the cup in the 2013-14 season. The group then followed that performance up by not making the playoffs the next season and a miserable first-round ousting the year after.
The core of the Kings is battle-tested and more than able to hold its own in a Stanley Cup series, but how the rest of the group fares is hard to predict. And heaven forbid the very best players on the team struck a scoring slump in the playoffs because relying on the bottom-six forwards for crime is sure to doom LA.. That’s not to say that they can not create a run based on incredible defense along with also a red-hot goalie in Quick.
Western Conference +750
The Conference is loaded with teams that were dangerous. The perennially contending Chicago Blackhawks still look like the course of the conference but there are still emerging powerhouses in St. Louis and Anaheim. In order for the Kings to win the Western Conference for the third time in six months, they will need to be able to beat those 3 groups.
The Kings combined for a middling 5-4-2 record against the Blackhawks, Blues and Kings last year. In reality, one of those three groups, LA’s only winning album was against the Blackhawks.
Pacific Division +225
Though the Kings have won two Stanley Cups in the past five seasons, they’ve not won a Pacific Division title. In fact, the only time the Kings ended the regular season atop their division was in 1990-91 when they awakened the Smythe Division. It is very sensible that the Kings could end that drought this year — since they are co-faves together with the Ducks — but they will need to prevent another crippling slump.
The Kings wasted a 10-point branch lead last season to the Ducks following the group imploded to close out the year. LA has been 30-16-3 entering the all-star break last year and then faltered into a pedestrian 18-18-3 for the rest of the season.
The largest reason for this collapse was their battles within the branch, since the Kings went just 10-7-0 against the Pacific following the all-star fracture in comparison with 8-4 before. When you factor in that six of these wins following the break came against Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton, you’ll be justifiably concerned entering this season.
Point Total OVER/UNDER 97.5
In Darryl Sutter’s three full seasons as head coach of the Kings — we aren’t such as the shortened 2012-13 season — the group has averaged 99 points per season. It’s honestly difficult to see that this team regressing too much after submitting 102 points last year, but a slight drop could be expected considering their ice-cold near last year.
In order to surpass the 97.5-point mark, some younger players will probably should provide added scoring. Goal scoring will notably be needed in the wings, as the sole winger to finish with more than 40 points every year was Milan Lucic, who signed with Edmonton this offseason.
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