The Los Angeles Kings have fallen into their first major rut of the season and the Detroit Red Wings don’t figure to offer a helping hand when they visit on Thursday night.
The Kings have not scored in their past five periods, plus an overtime, and they could drift into their longest losing streak of the season with another loss against Detroit.
Los Angeles lost its third game in a row and was shut out for the first time this season on Tuesday night against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.
Kings coach Todd McLellan shuffled his lines mid-game after the Kings fell behind 2-0, but the Maple Leafs packed in their defense and Los Angeles ultimately lost 3-0.
“We’ll sit down (on Wednesday) and we’ll talk about whether we liked it or not,” McLellan said of the line changes. “I do think we played more assertively and faster in the second half of the game, but sometimes the score dictates what the opponent does.”
Four weeks ago, the Kings looked like Stanley Cup front-runners after bolting to a 16-4-3 start, but then they lost three in a row.
Los Angeles won four of its next five, but two of those wins came against the San Jose Sharks, who own the fewest wins in the NHL, and the other two came against the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken, who are also having down years.
When the schedule ramped back up, the Kings lost back-to-back games to the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers last week before falling to Toronto.
McLellan said one area that has regressed is the passing, especially against the Maple Leafs.
“Very erratic, in boots, behind people, where we had to stop and restart and then get re-loaded,” he said.
Detroit also watched its season take a turn in the past four weeks.
The Red Wings were 14-7-3 after a 5-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 5, but have gone 4-9-1 since then with just two wins coming in regulation.
One of those came in San Jose on Tuesday night, when Detroit rallied from a 3-2 deficit midway through the third period to win 5-3.
“We’re fighting for our lives and every point is massive right now,” Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon said after making 24 saves against the Sharks.
Detroit went 2-for-4 on the power play against San Jose and is tied for 12th in the NHL in power-play efficiency at 22.2 percent. That’s a slight improvement over last season (21.1) and a major bump from two years ago (16.3).
“The good thing with our power play, why it keeps chugging along here, is we have a lot of options,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said.
Detroit ended a four-game road losing streak with the win in San Jose. Lalonde would like to see the Red Wings keep it going against Los Angeles before they conclude the three-game trip at the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
Detroit is scheduled to host the Kings on Jan. 13.
“Our goal is to win every road trip we can,” Lalonde said. “You get as many points as games on the road to have a successful road trip. We’ve got two (points) bagged, get a practice in (Wednesday). We’ll need to be a little bit better to be successful in L.A.”
–Field Level Media