How The Los Angeles Kings' Slow Start Could Spark Major Changes

Maybe, in retrospect, they should give Anze Kopitar some MVP votes for the job he did over the last couple of years.

No one was going to mistake the Los Angeles Kings for a legitimate contender for anything of note over the last few seasons, but they were basically always a tough out, and always striving to just win or lose by a single goal. Preferably in overtime.

But without Kopitar so far this season, the team is only being saved from true ignominy in their division, let alone their conference, by the pitiful Calgary Flames.

The fact that their struggles seem to be growing, despite a summer in which every move they made screamed that they were trying to contend, raises some uncomfortable questions.

Peter Laviolette is only a couple of weeks into his seventh stop as a head coach, and already the Kings are showing him horrors he couldn't have imagined in the darkest days on Long Island or pre-salary cap Carolina.

They have just 10 goals in 17 games, can't kill a penalty to save their lives, and bet the house on a really weird summer.

Their goaltending remains old (Darcy Kuemper is 36, Anton Forsberg 34), and in the past eight months or so, they've added Artemi Panarin (35), Erik Haula (35), Mats Zuccarello (39), and Corey Perry (41).

Panarin and 37-year-old Drew Doughty are their time-on-ice leaders. Quinton Byfield is their No. 1 center but looks like he's not ready for primetime, and that was easy enough to see coming. They also don't seem to trust Brandt Clarke with big minutes; he's been north of 20 in just two of his five games.

That said, it is only five games and those have been played without Kevin Fiala, who may be returning soon. While the overall numbers are bad, but the underlyings aren't awful. Being a little under 50 percent in expected-goals share at 5-on-5, and a little over 52 percent in all situations, is something a coach like Laviolette can work with.

They have games in hand over others in the Pacific, so maybe there's some growing to do as everyone adjusts to the new coach; you can't teach 17 or so old dogs new tricks with a shortened training camp. But every game that's not a regulation win is likely points they're frittering away.

When you start slow and don't have an especially high ceiling to begin with, the math doesn't look too hot, even on Oct. 15.

However, many pundits probably had the Kings outside the playoffs regardless, and it would certainly be better for them in the long term to finish nearer to 32nd place than 17th, right? Well, they don't seem to think that way.

You don't hire an assuredly expensive coach like Laviolette to tank. You don't sign a bunch of veterans and give them trade protection if you see the possibility of a tank looming on your horizon. You certainly don't limit the minutes of your 24-and-under future stars, either.

And it is very easy, by the way, to chalk this up to a goaltending problem. Kuemper is carrying an .847 save percentage in four appearances, most recently getting pulled after allowing three goals on seven shots against the Edmonton Oilers. Meanwhile, Forsberg is at .853 in two games.

If this team had average goaltending, we're probably not having this conversation. But the risk of half your games coming with bad goaltending is essentially baked into the decision to carry a tandem with an average age of 35.

GM Ken Holland is no spring chicken. He built this team to be competitive now, and through five games, it isn't. At his age, with his level of experience and success in the league, he might not want to put himself through even something as tepid as a rebuild on the fly, and trade as many elderly veterans off the team as he can.

But with each upcoming bad night in net, each game where they don't generate enough offense to bother the other netminder, or some combination thereof, it becomes harder to ignore that the current roster was never going to cut it.

It remains to be seen whether they have a plan if things go south. But they certainly didn't spend the summer building the team, from the coach on down, in a way that suggests they put too much thought into it.

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free.

See more of The Hockey News on Google and save us as a preferred source. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.