Kings' Victory Over Knights Offers a Glimpse into the Future

Did the Los Angeles Kings just show us a glimpse of the future?

The rise to the throne continues, and with a statement win against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Kings just formulated a forward combination that management will have to ponder moving forward.

For Quinton Byfield, it's as if he was always meant to be the 1C, as he played with the two top wingers on the roster for the first time in his early career as a King. Talk about pulling a reverse uno card on the organization's doubters. This is what the organization has needed from its future cornerstone. That's what getting drafted second overall does: it creates expectations. Last night's future was fully displaying a window that could be. Whether that reality is just around the bend or waiting for a player's retirement is hard to tell.

The face, or rather faces of the franchise, will always be Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. Both players are future Hall of Famers who brought more success in three years than every Kings player in their franchise history combined. While Doughty will almost certainly play longer and have his coveted number role maintained for perhaps another half-decade, Kopitar is nearing the end of such a role.

Kopitar's ice time has decreased slightly each season, matching a trend of his play slightly diminishing. He's still remarkably sturdy in his hockey elder years and is no slouch on productivity, as his performance with Adrian Kempe is a big reason the Kings had the first half they did. 46 points in 55 games is not crying out, 'He's done, he's washed, he's no longer a top player.' But there are plenty of times where the situation with the captain garners more attention towards his replacement.

His decrease in minutes over the last three seasons and the ascension to the throne of Byfield had to be the course of action. The Kings cannot grind a 37-year-old into the ground and expect him to continue being a go-to guy, being top matchup player come playoffs. The results of the last three postseasons speak for themselves.

In the interim, over the past few weeks, the Kings have seen a mix and match on the top line, with the duo of Kopitar and Kempe cycling through wingers. It seems the Alex Turcotte progression had come to a full stop. All signs pointed out that it could be the winger causing a production stoppage, and as it turns out, that was not the entire clause.

Welcome to the 1C show Byfield.

At the end of the second period against Vegas, a period in which the Kings were 'taken to school' per coach Jim Hiller. Hiller and Company would throw the forward groupings into a line blender until he came up with a combination that would break the onslaught of the Golden Knights. Hiller would throw Kempe into the mix with the newly established duo of Byfield and Kevin Fiala, and the three would change the tide for the Kings.

Tide is an understatement.

Via NST, the trio at even strength put together a whopping showing of analytics in 7:46. In that span, they had a dominant Corsi and Fenwick of 71.43% and 69.23%. They outshot the opposition 5-3, outscored 2-0, and out-chanced 8-2. High danger chances were also one-sided, 6-2. If anything, this trio took the Knights 'to-school'.

It's easy to get carried away with the thought and expectation that this is the new top line for the Kings. Hiller himself said this probably won't be a combination going forward, but he will also confer with his staff to see what's best for the club.

In other words, he might likely utilize this line while taking advantage of the 11-7 format that Hiller has found unprecedented success with. Be that as it may, it's a tactic that targets the uptick in production of these three players. If Kempe can get hot on this line, the staff will try to share that with Kopitar to get him going.

The Kings are not much of a team that loads up their top line, though we have seen stretches where Hiller has thrown the combination of Kopitar, Kempe, and Fiala out together to get something going. The numbers don't lie, and that line just doesn't work well together. For Hiller and the Kings, they have a surefire way of making that combination work by swapping Byfield, the team's future number one, with the current one.

Yes, it is a small sample size. However, it is a sample that should be examined further, as it provides a glimpse into a very real future. Four assists for Byfield? Not a bad start while having the team's two best forwards.

Is that future around the bend? Or will the hockey world wait until Kopitar's retirement to see this fully fledged?