The hits just keep on coming for the Los Angeles Kings. In a 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, the Kings had two players leave the game due to injury. Caleb Jones (upper body) and goaltender Darcy Kuemper (potentially lower body) both exited early and Jim Hiller didn’t have a post-game update on either..
If there is a vacancy in the crease, the Kings will likely give the nod to a familiar face in Pheonix Copley. Copley is 2-3-0 in the five games played on the inconsistent Ontario Reign this season, posting a stat line that’s likely been ballooned by a weak team defensive unit: 3.69 GAA—.860 SV%.
The Jones injury further hurts the Kings' defensive core, already without their number one defenseman, Drew Doughty. The defensive unit, which has relied heavily on the play of Vladislav Gavrikov and Mikey Anderson, has been showing an off-and-on ability to keep opposing top talent off the board. The Kings have also had the ability to plug in players such as Jones and Andreas Englund.
Depth matters in this league, and the Kings are starting to thin out. Jones played under six minutes in the game after being a healthy scratch for seven games.
If the Kings try to pull players up from Ontario, the Reign’s defensive reinforcements would suffer a massive talent drop-off. This is something to remember while this makeshift defensive unit tries to hold it together until Doughty returns.
Kuemper has dealt with various injuries in his career, with one as recent as the eight-goal game against the Ottawa Senators, as he missed time with another lower-body injury.
The injury here and the speculation about it being a recurring ailment are concerning. The season has yet to reach the quarter pole, and the Kings have to dig into their reserves while being inconsistent in their game-to-game performance.