What’s Going on in Los Angeles?
It has only been six games since the 2021-22 season kicked off, but it has been a very rocky start for the Los Angeles Kings. Managing to win only one game thus far and they are already riddled with injuries.
The most significant of these injuries is Drew Doughty who was injured in last Fridays contest against the Dallas Stars in an awkward knee on knee collision with Dallas player, Jani Hakanpaa. The injury was described as a significant bone bruise but thankfully that was the extent of the injury and there is no other serious ligament damage. He is expected to miss around 8 weeks. This is a huge loss for the kings as Doughty was off to a hot start. Despite only one win, Doughty personally was playing well with 1 goal and 6 assists. This is the first significant injury of his career thus far and has been an iron man of sorts for the Kings. He played in all 82 games for 5 years from 2014-19 and appeared in all 56 games last season.
The Kings suffered another devastating blow on Monday night against the St. Louis Blues when defenseman Sean Walker collided awkwardly with Blues forward David Perron and tore ligaments in his leg. It was later announced he would be out for the rest of the season. Walker was starting to finally look like he was getting comfortable as an NHL defenseman who could play a larger role on the Kings.
Another big injury that happened earlier on was Quinton Byfield who fractured his ankle in a preseason game against the Arizona Coyotes. This was an unfortunate blow for the Kings and Byfield personally as he was looking to start his first full season in the NHL. Hopefully Byfield makes a speedy recovery and can show the NHL he is ready to make an impact.
Aside from injuries the Kings have been struggling to show much offensive prowess at all. They are lead by Anze Kopitar who is having a good start to the year but other than that, the teams stats drop off. The Kings prospects seem like they will need a little more time to get a feel for the NHL level before they are able to truly make a splash. Specifically Gabe Vilardi, Arthur Kaliyev, Tobias Bjornfot, Mikey Anderson and Rasmus Kupari. All showed promise in pre-season but up to this point, the five have a combined 2 points. It is still very early so there is still time for them to get comfortable in the NHL and hit their stride.
Another aspect of the Kings that needs to be mentioned is their goaltending. Cal Petersen has been the number 1 so far and hasn’t stood out as much and many thought he would have. He is only 1-2-0, but is sporting a 3.71 GAA and a .885 save percentage. Jonathan Quick is also struggling as he has yet to get his first win of the year. His stats aren’t much better with a 2.64 GAA and .908 save percentage. Again, it is still very early so there is a lot of time for the tandem to turn it around.
The Kings are definitely still in a rebuilding phase despite the positive outlook many had before the season started. It seems like rookies will have to settle in and get up to NHL speed, defensive adjustments will need to be made, goaltenders will have to pick up some slack and the veterans will be relied on to carry a lot of the weight for the time being. With that being said, there are still many positives to look forward to such as the return of Byfield, having the team start to mesh and possibly some call ups from the Ontario Reign