Hockey Royalty
A fresh perspective of LA Kings news, rumors, and analysis.
On May 22nd, 2024, LA Kings General Manager Rob Blake shed Jim Hiller‘s interim tag, confirming him as the Kings’ next head coach.
This came on the heels of LA’s third straight defeat to the Edmonton Oilers in the playoffs. Here we are 11 months later, and the two teams are at it again, in the midst of what’s shaping up to be a lengthy first-round series.
A comment Blake made during that press conference stuck out to many, and that was that the team had to get a little “uncomfortable.”
“We’ve got a clear slate going forward, but our message is we’ve got to get uncomfortable with our group. We’ve got to do it. It starts right now, right here today with me, with Jim right down to our players.”
While what Blake was referencing at the time had more to do with more of a “desire” and a “will to win”, the team needs to be willing to get a little uncomfortable the rest of this series in a different way: by embracing a little bit of chaos.
The prior three seasons, the LA Kings have tried to beat the Edmonton Oilers with their tried and true defensive structure. Surely, the only way to beat Connor McDavid and the high-octane Oilers is to thwart them. Slow them down. At the time, it was the rigid 1-3-1. The commitment to checking. The playing soft through the neutral zone, forcing the Oilers to dump but rarely pressing up ice.
I don’t need to tell you how that turned out.
In 2025, though, this has been a different LA Kings. This team can score now. They’ve been clinical in their finishing when capitalizing on the many Oilers’ turnovers. LA has also dominated Special Teams. At the trade deadline, Blake didn’t acquire a two-way structured forward, he acquired Andrei Kuzmenko. The team knew that at the deadline, they needed more offense; they’re getting it. Embrace it.
And yet…when push comes to shove, with the lead in the third period, Hiller and the Kings have crawled back into their comfort zone of retreating into their shell, their commitment to stingy defense, and trying to hang on.
Here are some third-period 5-on-5 numbers for the Kings in this series (per Natural Stat Trick):
In Game 1, LA narrowly escaped what would have been an epic collapse. They ended the third period with a 43% shot attempt share and a 35.6% expected-goals share. If not for Vladislav Gavrikov‘s timely stick and an opportunistic Phillip Danault, the bend-don’t-break strategy nearly collapsed.
Conversely, in Game 2, with the Kings holding a 3-1 lead heading into the third period, it was the opposite. LA out-attempted Edmonton 17-10 at 5-on-5 and held a 66.1 xGF%. They outscored the Oilers in that third period en route to a 6-2 win.
Then, in Game 3, holding a one-goal lead after two, it was vintage Kings. The passive, bend-don’t-break approach. Except it broke. Of course, it broke. When you’re out-attempted 29-9, outshot 10-5 while on the receiving end of an 86.4% expected-goals share, you’re asking to give up a goal.
With an opportunity to put a stranglehold on the series, the Kings decided to welcome the Oilers’ pressure as opposed to pushing them back. Because that’s what’s been comfortable in Los Angeles. Defend, defend, defend.
Enough. How many examples of Edmonton making catastrophic mistakes in their own end do we need to see for Hiller to understand that, actually, being on the front foot is making Edmonton uncomfortable.
The Oilers’ blueliners are reeling this series in their own zone. By sheltering in the neutral zone, the Kings are making life easy on Edmonton’s defensemen.
LA needs to get “uncomfortable” in altering their trademark (albeit a wildly unsuccessful strategy of the past decade) defensive shell and force the likes of Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, and Co. back to their own zone. That’s where you want them.
Could this come with some risk? Sure. But who cares? It’s not as if Edmonton has had a hard time scoring this series, and did I mention the Kings are 0-3 in first-round series against the Oilers the past three years? Safe is death against Edmonton, no one knows that better than LA. Accept a little risk. Embrace the chaos that is the first round of the NHL Playoffs against a team that has a pair of world-class players.
In Game 3, the Kings were oh-so-close to taking a commanding lead in the series. But they reverted to their comfort zone. If they get that opportunity again in Game 4, Hiller needs to get a little uncomfortable. It’s what his GM demanded.
Main Photo Credit: Leila Devlin, GettyImages
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