Kevin Fiala’s shortcomings were painfully obvious early this season.
The risky passes that became costly giveaways. His lack of defensive awareness on a team built around two-way play. His production of one goal in his first 12 games while trying to force some kind of chemistry with center Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Less obvious was the effort the Kings’ skillful winger made to correct those problems.
Fiala invited his skills coach and longtime friend, Andreas Larsson, to Southern California to help lift him out of what was threatening to become a deep rut. Larsson didn’t have to deliver a magic formula or reinvent the wheel — or in this case, the puck.
Mixing the lines to put Fiala alongside Phillip Danault and Thousand Oaks native Trevor Moore certainly accelerated his resurgence. But so did the work Fiala did behind the scenes, a star who didn’t mind stepping outside the spotlight to put himself through solo practice sessions long after his teammates had finished their drills and gone home.
“He knows me in and out. Not just on the ice, what I do, but personally. He helped me off the ice a lot,” Fiala said of Larsson. “On the ice, we did some extra work after some practices. We came back to the rink and went on the ice for another hour and just worked on some things that I need to do better and [what] my strengths are, so I need to kind of know what it is again. Back to basics, kind of.”
That paid off Friday for Fiala, who scored twice to record his first multigoal game this season and fuel the Kings’ 5-2 victory over the Ducks in a Black Friday matinee at Honda Center. The refresher course on the basics gave him the foundation to be his old, effective self against the Ducks, who have lost five straight after a surprisingly good start.
“Just work hard and shoot the puck more. Go to the net more. All of those small details–just doing more,” Fiala said of the recent improvement in his game. “Also just driving the puck. I want the puck more. All of that stuff, I feel that I did a better job lately, so it’s nice.”
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