
It’s true, the Kings finally played a home game on Oct. 24, two weeks into the 2024-25 NHL season. More importantly, though, they came away with another win by defeating the visiting San Jose Sharks 3-2.
However, the score really wasn’t reflective of the overall story. LA came out of the gate like they were shot out of a cannon, just steamrolling their Northern California rivals in the opening 20 minutes. When first intermission rolled around, the Kings were outshooting their opponent 17-7 and leading on the scoreboard 3-0. Warren Foegele has a pair of goals, giving him three on the season and goals in back-to-back games.
Somehow, in the middle of that offensive outburst, the Kings still found a way to take three penalties. And the penalty box parade didn’t stop there. Three more penalties came in the middle frame, followed by two more in the third period. Coach Jim Hiller noted that most of them were stick fouls during his postgame media scrum. There were three high-sticking, two hooking, and a cross-checking call against LA. It was perhaps the last penalty that seemed to cause the most angst, when Kevin Fiala took a tripping penalty at 18:55 of P3 while being extra aggressive after the Sharks pulled their goaltender.
Just a few seconds later, Mikael Granlund scored his second power play goal of the period — which is why the score looked tighter than it really was.
Sure, LA beat a weaker team. The two points count the same.
Sitting at 4-2-2 on the season seemed to be what Hiller was most proud of (and for good reason). He didn’t want to “search for something that’s not there” when asked about different areas of his club’s effort that still needs improvement — including special teams and their performance at the faceoff dot. So, for now, it’s on to the next.
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