It’s almost inevitable that the Los Angeles Kings will respond after a loss. The Kings have yet to drop two games in a row at home this season and the trend continued as they held on to send the Seattle Kraken home with a 2-1 win.
Adrian Kempe remained as consistent as ever, picking up his team-leading 10th goal of the season. Also, a struggling Quinton Byfield who has remained persistent, was also able to find the back of the net.
Kings’ Starts Seem to Impact Outcome
Everyone knows how important it is to start the game strong and build momentum from the get-go. For the Kings, the way they start games seems to determine the rest of it most of the time. We know what kind of team has shown up after the first few minutes. Yesterday (Nov. 23), it was an aggressive, fast-paced start from the Kings that saw them turn pucks over, get it in deep, and cause chaos around the crease.
Head coach Jim Hiller said before the game that he wanted to see some “Intensity at their net-front,” and it was something the Kings remained persistent at for the majority of the game.
The Kings had four quick shots in the first three minutes of the game and did not allow the Kraken to register their first shot of the afternoon till 14:49 left in the first period.
That start died out for the rest of the first period, but it came back to start the second and allowed the Kings to take a 2-0 lead just over six minutes into period two.
Consistency From Rittich
Injuries have affected this group in multiple ways so far this season, and a persistent one has been the injury of starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper. With Kuemper going down twice now, David Rittich has had to step up to the plate and be that solid presence in the net for this team for the time being.
Rittich has started the last three games and has only given up one goal in each of them. He hasn’t had a tremendous amount of action, only facing an average of 19 shots in these last three games. It’s something that can be attributed to the way the Kings defend in their own end. They don’t give up much in terms of shots, and their ability to help out their goaltenders and not leave them out to dry has been a positive throughout the season. While Rittich isn’t facing loads of work, the shots he does have to track down are quality chances a lot of the time.
Consistency and reliability are two words Rittich…
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