LA Kings Holding Their Own Against League’s Best

Now that the month of March is half over, potential playoff seedings and wild card battles are taking shape nightly across the NHL.

With last week’s trade deadline in the books, fans and experts alike seem to view the Dallas Stars as serious Stanley Cup favorites. And the betting markets appear to agree, with Draft Kings having the Stars down at +600 to win it all. Not far behind are the Edmonton Oilers, + 800 to win their first Cup since 1990.

The Los Angeles Kings? They aren’t getting a ton of love from the sports books at +2000 or an implied probability of 4.76%. 

Although it’s true that the Kings have well-known issues, is it possible that LA is more of a threat than people realize? Despite their 28th-ranked power play (15.5%), 13th-ranked save percentage (.904), and mild 2.86 goals per game, the Kings are regularly beating some very good teams. 

Looking strictly at teams with a .600+ points percentage at this point in the season (CAR, COL, DAL, EDM, FLA, TBL, TOR, VGK, WSH, WPG), the Kings are a robust 11-8 against this elite group. This includes three wins against Vegas, two wins against both Dallas and Winnipeg and one against the defending champion Florida Panthers. Not too shabby.

How have Cup favorites Dallas and Edmonton fared against this same group? Not nearly as well as Los Angeles. Edmonton has so far gone 7-11-3 against these elite teams, while Dallas has posted a record of 7-11-2. Not the kind of record that screams a lock to win it all in June. 

While it would be foolish to read too much into this discrepancy, it seems to indicate that the LA Kings play up to their competition. There is a belief in the room that they can beat anybody when they play their game.

Swiss winger Kevin Fiala alluded to this sentiment during the media scrum following LA’s win against the Washington Capitals on March 13th:
“We’re not scared from (sic) anybody. We’re strong at home this year.”

Not just strong but a league best 22-3-4 at Crypto.com Arena, which has suddenly become a very inhospitable venue for road teams from either conference. 

With 18 regular season games remaining for the Kings, much remains to be written. Will their dominance at home continue unabated? Can they continue to go toe-to-toe with the NHL’s top tier? Will they find a way to get better results away from home?

If so, the hockey world just might be sleeping on these guys. And if you are LA, you probably hope that they keep dozing well into May and June. 

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