Entertainment at its biggest stage is what the city of Los Angeles is all about. Most of the time, that means music, film, and theater. Last night, however, there was one heck of an entertaining hockey game at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Kings and high-event hockey usually mix like water and oil. In other words, they don’t, but against the Dallas Stars, all three periods were electric. It was a battle of who would score last with both teams going back and forth trading goals. One of the most exciting Kings games of the season ended up with the home team pulling out a 5-4 win in the shootout.
“I thought it was one of our best games of the year to be honest with you, just all-in, just the different elements that were there. We were good on the rush, we were good in the o-zone. They’re (Dallas) gonna get you sometimes. They’re good, too, so just really liked the game,” said head coach Jim Hiller, who became the fastest coach to reach 50 wins in franchise history.
After dropping eight of 13 games played in January, the Kings have kicked off February with a three-game win streak, with two of them coming against a powerhouse team. Handing losses to the Stars and Carolina Hurricanes shows that this team has what it takes to compete at the top of the NHL, and while you might say that’s a small sample size, don’t forget the Kings have also beaten the Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, Vegas Golden Knights, and the league-leading Winnipeg Jets twice this season. There’s no doubt the Kings have struggled at times and they haven’t found that same level of consistency like some of the teams ahead of them in the standings, but it would be foolish to think that this group is incapable of contending.
“We’re such a deep team. I mean, going even back to last year, we kind of struggled against these guys with their speed and everything. And now, I think this year we are just kind of matching that… I think as long as we can keep doing that with four lines, it’s going to be a pretty good time in (the) playoffs this year,” said forward Alex Laferriere.
Kings Scoring in Bunches
It was just over a week ago when scoring one goal was a difficult task for this group, having been shut out in back-to-back games in the state of Florida. It’s insane how quickly things can change and how easy it is to build off momentum and get in a groove once things start clicking again. It’s not like…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at The Hockey Writers…