Let us look at the advantages: the Los Angeles Kings had among the best defenses in the NHL last season and made the playoffs. The poor? The team is filled with dead-weight contracts which have obliterated their depth and they got easily bumped in the first round of the playoffs.
Regardless of the negatives, you will be hard-pressed to find a better core nucleus on a team with Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick. Kopitar is the reigning Selke Trophy winner and Doughty is coming off an excellent 2015-16 season that saw him win the Norris Trophy.
The question remains: will the Kings’ low-scoring, defensive-minded play conceal their problems with depth and lead them to the next deep playoff run?
Stanley Cup +1800
It appears like a distant memory, but LA hoisted the cup in the 2013-14 season. The team then followed that performance up by not making the playoffs the following season and a miserable first-round ousting the season after.
The core of the Kings is battle-tested and more than able to hold its own in a Stanley Cup series, but how the rest of the team fares is hard to predict. And heaven forbid the top players on the team struck a scoring slump in the playoffs because relying upon the bottom-six forward for crime is sure to doom LA.. That is not to say they can not create a run based on phenomenal defense along with also a red-hot goalie in Quick.
Western Conference +750
The Conference is loaded with teams that were hazardous. The perennially contending Chicago Blackhawks still look like the class of the summit but there are still emerging powerhouses in St. Louis and Anaheim. In order for the Kings to win the Western Conference for the third time in six seasons, they need to have the ability to beat those 3 teams.
The Kings combined for a middling 5-4-2 record against the Blackhawks, Blues and Kings last year. In fact, among those three teams, LA’s only winning record was against the Blackhawks.
Pacific Division +225
Though the Kings have won two Stanley Cups in the past five seasons, they’ve not won a Pacific Division title. In reality, the only time the Kings finished the regular season atop their division was in 1990-91 when they topped the Smythe Division. It is very realistic that the Kings can end that drought this year — as they’re co-faves together with the Ducks — however they need to avoid another crippling slump.
The Kings squandered a 10-point division lead last season to the Ducks after the group imploded to shut out the year. LA was 30-16-3 entering the all-star break last season and then faltered into a pedestrian 18-18-3 to the remainder of the season.
The largest cause of this collapse was that their struggles within the division, as the Kings went only 10-7-0 against the Pacific after the all-star fracture compared with 8-4 before. And when you factor in that six of those wins following the break came against Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton, you can be justifiably concerned entering this season.
Point Total OVER/UNDER 97.5
In Darryl Sutter’s three full seasons as head coach of the Kings — we are not including the shortened 2012-13 year — the team has averaged 99 points per season. It is really hard to see that this team regressing too much after submitting 102 points last season, however a slight drop may be expected considering their ice-cold close to last year.
In order to surpass the 97.5-point mark, some younger players will probably should supply added scoring. Goal scoring will especially be needed in the wings, as the only winger to finish with over 40 points last season was Milan Lucic, who signed with Edmonton this offseason.
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