LA’s three-game road trip through the Central Division ended with a 4-1 loss to Dallas on Saturday night. Along with the Stars defeating the Kings for the second time in a week, they swept the series against their Western Conference counterparts in the process.
After playing the previous night in Chicago, it appeared to be a tough matchup on paper for the Kings even before the puck dropped — especially considering LA had won only twice in nine previous conclusions to a back-to-back set. And after the Stars jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, the mountain seemed too high to climb for the Kings; Dallas never relinquished control of the game.
Kevin Fiala’s goal in the final frame provided LA their lone tally of the night. To illustrate just how effective the Swiss forward has been during a period where the Kings offense has been rater inconsistent, that was his ninth goal in 14 games.
Kevin Fiala gets LA on the board
@LAKings I #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/GdrvRlQYod
— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) March 17, 2024
Texas-Sized Troubles: The Kings went 0-3-0 in their season series against the Stars and were outscored by a 13-3 margin. Throughout the year, Dallas has proved to be a very deep team with Stanley Cup aspirations, and they proved to be too much to handle for LA during the regular season.
Lineup Change: Arthur Kaliyev drew back into the lineup on Saturday, while Jacob Moverare was a healthy scratch. This meant coach Jim Hiller reverted back to a traditional alignment of 12 forwards and 6 defensemen for the first time in four games. It’s unclear at the moment if this will continue moving ahead, but it’s worth keeping an eye on given Hiller’s frequent use of 11+7 during his time as LA’s bench boss.
Stat Sheet Takeaways: On Saturday, the Kings logged a season-high 42 hits. This continues a recent trend of the team being more involved physically, an area they lacked in the early parts of the season. With every game being meaningful this time of year, and playoff hockey just about a month away, it’s not surprising to see the physicality ramping up, especially for teams in the thick of the postseason race such as LA.
Kingsley’s Milestone: The lone bright spot for LA on Saturday was the celebration of head athletic trainer Chris Kingsley’s 2000th game working in professional hockey. Kingsley has been with the LA organization since 2005, and the Kings honored him before the game with special warmup jerseys and hats. Kingsley became the second member of LA’s staff to reach the milestone; head equipment manager Darren Granger worked his 2000th game back in 2019.
2Kinger
Tonight, Head Athletic Trainer Chris Kingsley reaches the milestone of his 2000th game in professional hockey.
Pregame, each player will wear one of the logos of each of Kinger’s teams, Cushing Academy, Lowell Lock Monsters, USA Hockey, Manchester Monarchs and the… pic.twitter.com/tkOsbmT473
— LA Kings (@LAKings) March 16, 2024
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