Three Takeaways From Kings' 4-2 Loss Against Flyers

The Los Angeles Kings' struggles at home continued on Saturday as they fell 4-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Kings didn't look like themselves all game, and as Todd McLellan said post game, they were outworked and out-committed.

Owen Tippet opened the scoring for the Flyers with a breakaway tally in the first, the only goal of the period.

Morgan Frost then collected two goals in the second to give Philly a 3-0 lead. Frost caught Cam Talbot out of position and had his centering feed go off Jordan Spence and in for his first. He then tipped home a Nick Seeler shot for his second a few minutes later.

Carl Grundstrom then got the Kings on the board late in the second, beating Cal Petersen from the slot for his sixth goal of the year.

Cam Atkinson killed the Kings' momentum early in the third though, capitalizing on a Vladislav Gavrikov turnover to make the game 4-1.

Adrian Kempe kept his point streak alive, converting a fantastic tip-pass from Quinton Byfield for his seventh goal of the season.

A few late penalties killed the Kings' hopes of a comeback as they lost their sixth game at home (just their third in regulation.)

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Despite being a point-per-game player, Kevin Fiala is unhappy with his play this season, and so is the coaching staff.

These struggles led to McLellan switching up the lines, moving Fiala onto Phil Danault's wing. 

This didn't have the desire impact though, as Fiala finished Saturday's game a negative three. Outside of the -3, Fiala also just looked off. He didn't have the usually dynamism and explosiveness in his game.

This isn't a one-off poor night for Fiala either, and there's some concern about his play according to McLellan.

"There is some concern, yeah," said McLellan post game. "I can't lie to you, we're trying to get him going. Some of the concern comes in power play situations where he should be excelling, and some of it is the game management and defensive side of the puck. So, both sides of the puck, he has to be better.

There weren't many positives to take from Saturday's game from a Kings perspective, but Kempe and Byfield continuing their point streak was one.

Neither player had their best game, Byfield in particular looked a little off, but they were still productive and that's what mattered.

One thing that did stick out in a positive way for Byfield was his physical engagement. There were some plays where he initiated contact or attempted to fight through it which we haven't always seen from him.

If those are going to be his "off nights" the Kings are in a good spot.

Kempe has been excellent for most of this season, so it's no surprise he found the score sheet.

There's plenty of analysis that can be done on this game, but simply put, the Kings had an off night.

Those kinds of games will happen, and so long as they don't happen frequently, you can throw them away.

There's some concern over the effort, as McLellan pointed out, the Kings were outworked, but that happens too. 

The Flyers also deserve plenty of credit, coming in with a high-energy performance on night two of a back-to-back.

McLellan did mention some concerns about the Kings' poor home record post game, but it's too early to hit the panic button on that.