Penalty killing used to be a staple of the Los Angeles Kings' culture. However, during Rob Blake's tenure as General Manager, it shifted into a weakness. After a few years of turbulent struggle and some shredding by the Edmonton Oilers in the playoffs, the Kings penalty kill shifted to a diamond formation. They boasted a 84.6% rate by the end of the year, good for second overall. The Kings still got decimated by the Oilers in the playoffs, summarizing three years of penalty-kill inconsistency regardless of the setup. Personnel changes in the Kings' offseason dictated some much-needed change, influenced by three consecutive first-round exits. So far, these changes have impacted the penalty kill, but maybe not the way management expected. Kings are fourteenth on the kill this year, with a flat 80% success rate. The middle ground can be expected (if not considered a small victory) for a team that lost a stout penalty killer in Matt Roy, implemented a new defenseman in Joel Edmundson, and is without Drew Doughty. Considering how hot to trot to the penalty box they were to start the year, they've settled down quite a bit. They've accumulated 238 penalty minutes, the ninth most in the league. For the first month and a half of the regular season, the Kings jockeyed for second and third most penalty minutes. These numbers are spiked by majors taken by Kyle Burroughs and Tanner Jeannot, but the minors were buoyed by Kevin Fiala and Brandt Clarke (22 PIM apiece). Two players almost pacing a penalty minute a game to start the season put a strain on a reformed penalty kill unit. Clarke's numbers are somewhat expected, as the young defenseman is not fleet of foot. His strength is scoring points (16 in 25 games) and not being sound defensively. On the other side, Fiala's game has always included frustration-related penalties. That's just who he is as a player, [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/los-angeles-kings/latest-news/kings-kevin-fiala-the-give-and-take] as alarming as his rate is compared to other seasons. For a team with new personnel and missing an elite regular, a high volume of penalty minutes can destabilize any chance of putting together a successful stretch of winning hockey while putting considerable strain on its shorthanded units. At even strength, they are defensively sound as one of the best teams in the league. The offense is hit or miss, and the powerplay (16.4%) is in the league's cellar. Many things make sense when considering that the Kings finally won three games in a row for the first time this season. Part of that is the up-and-down play of the penalty kill. If that continues to stabilize, the Kings should be able to string together wins more often. LA Kings Weekly Preview - December 1st
