The Los Angeles Kings had a strong penalty kill last season, finishing eighth at 81.4% thanks to a defensively focused lineup and aggressive penalty-kill mentality. Their power play struggled, finishing 17.9%, one of the league's worst, despite 207 opportunities. Power-play problems included lacking a right-shot forward experienced on the left flank, missing the right personnel, poor puck movement, and failure to generate clean looks and capitalize on prime chances. After acquiring Andrei Kuzmenko at the trade deadline and placing him on the first unit, the power play improved dramatically, rising to 23.7% in March and 24.2% in April. Special teams carried early playoff success. Kuzmenko will return this season.
Special teams consistently change the dynamic of games and significantly impact the success of teams. For the Los Angeles Kings, last season, the success of their special teams was bittersweet. Their penalty kill was a strength, and for a team that was defensively focused throughout the entire lineup, that was expected. Their aggressive mentality, while a man down, propelled them to have the eighth-best penalty kill when it was all said and done, operating at 81.4%.
The Kings didn't have the perfect setup on the power play, and part of that was because they didn't have a right-shot forward who had experience playing on the left flank. It was a combination of not having the right pieces, completely choking on prime opportunities, poor puck movement, and the inability to find clean looks toward the net. As the season went on, the power play continued to get worse until March hit, when something changed.
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