The Los Angeles Kings are now officially halfway through the season after their 5-1 loss against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.

At the halfway mark, they're 21-12-8, good for 50 points and a 100-point pace.

At that pace, the Kings should comfortably make the playoffs, but it is a regression from last season's 104 points. 

Kings fans are pretty down on the team right now, as they've won just one of their last 10 games and recently went through an eight-game losing streak, but taking a step back, it hasn't been a bad first half for the Kings.

The Kings set an NHL record by winning their first 11 road games to start the season and looked like a real threat to challenge for the Pacific Division title into December.

The team is still an analytics darling, sitting near the top of the league in most categories, and have shown they can be a dominant team at times.

Of course, none of that matters if they don't start putting wins on the board.

I've talked about their current play enough recently though, so let's look at some surprises and disappointments this season.

Goaltending was supposed to be the Kings' weak point this season and was labeled their biggest area of weakness.

Not many people were convinced the 36-year-old Cam Talbot, coming off an injury-ridden, poor season in Ottawa would be the answer.

However, an All-Star game nomination and some top-10 numbers have flipped the conversation around Talbot.

He hasn't been a true superstar for LA and won't be up for the Vezina, but he's provided the Kings with quality starts in net. 

At their best, this Kings team doesn't need 2012 Jonathan Quick to be successful, they just need solid goaltending and that's what Talbot has provided and then some.

There are some warning signs surrounding his current play. He hasn't won since Dec. 23, an eight-game stretch, but his numbers haven't been terrible in that stretch.

He's still posted around, or above, a .900 save percentage in most of those games and is more a victim of poor play in front of him.

Still, the Kings need him to start grabbing wins again if they're to climb out of their current funk.

Barring a second-half collapse, Talbot will likely go down as the biggest surprise of the season given the lack of hype surrounding him last summer.

It seems so long ago that people were calling Trevor Moore's 5-year, $21 million contract extension a gross overpay by Rob Blake.

Halfway through the first of those five years, and $4.2 million AAV seems like highway robbery. 

He's already broken his career-high in goals and is on pace to lead the team with 40 goals. A lot of people were convinced his hot start was a flash in the pan but he just continues to score.

His finishing has taken a massive leap this season and he looks like a true sniper to go along with all of his other qualities.

The elite edgework, motor and high hockey IQ are now being backed up by a high-end shot and the Kings are reaping the benefits.

I'm still not sold on Moore hitting the 40 mark, although I wouldn't be shocked if he did, but 30 seems like a minimum at this point.

If he finishes with 30 goals and 50-60 points, Moore will have one of the best value-for-money contracts in the league. 

I called Alex Laferriere a dark horse to make the team during training camp, but I didn't expect him to cement himself into the Kings' top nine this season.

Laferriere's been a mainstay on the Kings' third line and played in 40 of their 41 games this season after being left off the team's roster for their preseason trip to Australia.

The offense hasn't been great for Laferriere, posting just 12 points in 40 games, but he's adapted well to the NHL and become a dependable player for Todd McLellan.

It will be interesting to see what happens after Viktor Arvidsson returns from injury, but Laferriere has been a pleasant surprise out of training camp.

I've talked a lot about Dubois this season so I don't want to go too in-depth here, but he had to feature in the disappointments section.

Have the Kings put him in the best spot to succeed? No, but at some point that doesn't matter.

Not when a player who the Kings gave up significant assets to acquire and signed to a monster, 8-year, $68 million contract is on pace for career 82-game lows in goals and assists.

Looking at the underlying numbers is even worse. Dubois is posting a team-low -4.1 goals-above-replacement according to Evolving-Hockey.com.

The Kings' second-worst player in this category is Carl Grundstrom. He's posting a -1.1.

No matter how confident you are that Dubois will turn it around and be an impactful player for this team at some point, there's no ignoring how disappointing his first 41 games have been.

Given what was given up to acquire him, he might be the most disappointing offseason acquisition in the league right now.

Arthur Kaliyev featuring here has as much to do with his deployment as it does with his individual play.

Kaliyev had a fantastic training camp and it looked like he was ready to take the next step in his development, but it just hasn't worked out that way.

He missed the start of the season due to suspension, played a few games on the second line, and then was moved to the third line where he's struggled for most of the season.

Add in the lack of production from the power play and it's been a tough season for Kaliyev. To the point that he's been healthy scratched three times in the last 10 games.

He's on pace for 13 goals and 17 points, the same number of goals he scored last season and just two more assists. Which doesn't look too bad until you remember that Kaliyev played in just 56 games last season.

Some of that definitely comes down to the player. He was awful against the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 30, leading to his first scratch, but some of it is also poor usage.

He doesn't fit on a line with Dubois and Laferriere and McLellan seems unwilling to try him elsewhere for more than a game or two.

Every time he's moved on a new line, usually with Phil Danault in some capacity, he looks much better. 

He doesn't mesh with Dubois and Laferriere's north-south, direct style of play but he's continuously been forced onto that line.

Part of it is the success of the top six, McLellan understandably doesn't want to break up two successful lines to try and get one player going, but it's painful watching Kaliyev be misused so much.

There's also an element of refusing to accept Kaliyev for who he is. He'll never be stellar defensively, nor a high-energy player. But the Kings knew that when they drafted him, or at least they should have.

Players can't be given a free pass to give poor efforts or not defend, but at some point, you either commit to Kaliyev as he is, flaws and all, or you move on.

He's an exceptional shooter who needs to be allowed to float around a bit and find open space to work with.

If McLellan isn't willing to work with that, and he doesn't have to be, I question Kaliyev's future in the organization.