The Week That Was, The Week That Is - 3/20

The Week That Was

Heading into the weekend on their eight-game point streak, the Kings extended it to nine games but lost in the process. Despite controlling the play for the majority of regulation and outshooting the Canucks 40-14 after 60 minutes, the game was tied 2-2. After a Canucks goal midway into the first period, it was Alex Edler, the longtime Canuck who struck against his old team for the first time in his career in the final minutes of the opening period. The Kings went on to take the lead with 3:42 remaining in the second period when Carl Grundstrom incidentally deflected a puck off of his skate and into the net off of a Rasmus Kupari backdoor pass. Grundstrom's goal marked his second goal in as many games and was his career-high tying ninth goal and 15th point of the season, both marks set in the 2021-22 season. With the Kings leading entering the final 20 minutes, it was the Canucks who had the last laugh. Elias Petterson knotted the game with a power-play goal midway into the third period, sending the game into overtime. There, the Canucks controlled play and outshot the Kings 3-0 but were unable to find the game-winning goal thanks to multiple outstanding saves by Joonas Korpisalo. Into the shootout the game went and after two rounds the Canucks earned the extra point, succeeding on both attempts while the Kings were unable to find the back of the net.
Notable News From The Week That Was:
- Carl Grundstrom (2-1=3) led the Kings in scoring. - Leading scorer for the Kings Kevin Fiala has missed four consecutive games after a knee-to-knee collision in March 9th's game against the Colorado Avalanche. Fiala is deemed day-to-day and is progressing towards returning to the Kings lineup. - The Kings power play went 2-for-7 in the in their lone game, placing them 6th in the NHL (24.0%). - The Kings penalty kill went 5-for-6 in the lone game, placing them 24th in the NHL (75.9%).

The Week That Is

The Kings have more three games on schedule this week, all home games for the second straight week. On the schedule sits a pair of games against playoff hopefuls with the eighth-seeded Winnipeg Jets and the ninth-seeded Calgary Flames before a Sunday night tilt against the St. Louis Blues.
The Kings begin their week's play with a Monday night game against a point-hungry Calgary Flames. At 31-24-15 (77 points), the Flames currently sit in ninth in the Western Conference playoff picture, four points behind the Winnipeg Jets with one game in hand. The Flames come into Los Angeles on a four-game point streak (2-0-2) and have scored 20 goals during that span. Having faced the Flames twice before this season, this will be game three of four and the last time they face off against each other in Los Angeles. The Kings first fell in Calgary 6-5 in regulation after falling behind 5-2 22 minutes into the game on November 14th, before evening the season series with a 4-3 overtime win on December 22nd. Special teams will be a pair of evenly ranked matchups as the Kings power play ranks sixth (24.0%) in the NHL and Flames penalty kill ranks eighth (82.3%). On the flip side, the Kings penalty kills sits 24th (75.9%) in the NHL while the Flames power play sits at 22nd (19.5%). One player to keep an eye on will be offensive defenseman Rasmus Andersson who has notched six assists and eight points in his last four games. Andersson has 47 points (10-37=47) in 67 games this season. Following the Monday night game, the two teams will close out the season series on March 28th in Calgary.
After the early week game, the Kings won't play for five days until they host the current holders of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, the Winnipeg Jets in Saturday matinee. Between now and Saturday's game, the Jets will have played two more games (vs. AZ, @ANA) as the fourth-place Central Division sitting team look to get back into the playoffs after missing the postseason last year. The Jets are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, but are coming off a shutout road loss to the St. Louis Blues. The Kings will again go against another strong penalty kill as the Jets rank 2nd (83.5%) in the NHL when a man down. In one area that the Kings do have an advantage is in the face-off dots, as the the Jets rank 23rd (47.6%) in the NHL while the Kings sit 6th (53.0%). Likely Calgary, the Jets also have a threatening offensive defenseman in likely Norris Trophy nominee Josh Morrissey. Morrissey ranks second in the NHL among defenseman in points (69) and third in assists (54). This will be the third and final meeting between the Jets and Kings with both of their two previous games having been won by the road team.
Lastly, the Kings will return back to Cryto.com Arena just over 24 hours later and host the 31-33-5 St. Louis Blues. Like the game with the Jets, this will be the third and final time the two teams face off during the 2022-23 campaign. Unlike the Kings season series with the Jets, the Kings have won both of the two previous meetings against the Blues. Having outscored the Blues 9-3 in the two games, the Kings special teams has been key to the success. A combined 2-for-6 on the power play and 7-for-7 on the penalty kill, the Kings have yet to trail the Blues this season. Having been active sellers at the trade deadline, the Blues are without multiple familiar faces in former captain Ryan O'Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ivan Barbashev, Niko Mikkola and first-year Blues defenseman Noel Accari. The Blues have three games between now and Sunday's tilt with the Kings, but have won two straight games and are 5-5-0 in their last 10 games.
All three games this week can be seen on Bally Sports West or Bally Sports +.
Upcoming games this week:
- 3/20 vs Calgary Flames @7:30 - 3/25 vs. Winnipeg Jets @1:00 - 3/26 vs. St. Louis Blues @7:30