For the game against the Sharks, head coach Jim Hiller completely mixed up the forward corps in an attempt to wake up certain struggling members of the team. These new forward lines helped generate some offense, but the Kings ultimately fell to the Sharks in the shootout. Here are some key takeaways from the game last night:

The new Danault line has to stay together
The newly created third line of Warren Foegele, Phillip Danault, and Alex Laferriere was on fire last night. Despite them not being on the ice for a Kings goal, they still dominated every metric. In the 6:46 of even-strength ice time this line had, the Sharks didn’t manage to record a single unblocked shot attempt. Although Danault still raised some concerns regarding his effort, this line was essential in the Kings gaining and maintaining possession last night.

Keep giving Brandt Clarke ice time!

Despite not scoring a point yesterday, he was crucial to the Kings’ offense last night, as he was on the ice when they scored the tying goal to force the game into overtime. In all situations, Clarke was on the ice for 34 shot attempts, by far the most of any Kings defenseman. If the Kings plan to make Clarke the number one defenseman on the team once veteran Drew Doughty retires, and they should, they must keep giving him these opportunities to learn and grow.

The 5 forward power play experiment has to end

It’s no secret that the Kings’ power play has not been up to par as of late. Since October 25th, LA has just 4 power play goals on 43 attempts, totaling a 9.3% conversion rate. Not only is this worse than LA’s utterly woeful percentage last season, it’s also the worst in the entire NHL in that span. Having scoring winger Adrian Kempe on the blueline is a waste of his shooting talents, and the majority of the time spent on the power play is endless passing around the outskirts of the offensive zone, followed by an easy shot from the point. 

The main issue is that the two players closest to the blue line, Kempe and winger Kevin Fiala, are the only two players on that first unit that are a threat from range. By keeping them to the outskirts, the opposing team can just have a player stick to front-net menace Corey Perry like glue, and completely render the Kings’ power play useless.

A possible fix would be to promote Brandt Clarke to the first power-play unit, so that a natural defenseman can be on the blue line, and both Kempe and Fiala can shift to a more mid-range position, so that they can also be a threat to score. 

Standout player grades:

Quinton Byfield: A-

Byfield was fantastic yesterday, and an A- is the highest grade I could give him when taking into account his not scoring any points last night. This may have been the first game in which he took advantage of his huge frame and used it to bully his opponent. In the second period, just under 7 minutes in, Byfield bullied young star Macklin Celebrini, stripping the puck from him at his own blue line, starting an entire minute of offensive zone time for the Kings, which ended with the Sharks taking a penalty. 

Byfield’s line matched against Celebrini’s line for most of the game, and they had a net positive expected goals share and shot attempt share against one of the hottest lines in the league. If he can keep up this play, the points will come while being elite defensively.

Alex Laferriere: A-

Laferriere also had a great game, and he dominated play at 5v5. While he was on the ice, the Kings out-attempted the Sharks 16-4, and his expected goals share was over 88%, by far the highest on the team. He also, although this can’t be backed up by a statistic, looked much quicker than previously in the season. Overall, last night was a great performance for a player who was put on a line with two struggling ones for the first time.

Penalty Kill: A+

No power-play goals against, one short-handed goal for. 10/10, no notes!

Alex Turcotte: D+

Turcotte, despite not getting many minutes, wasn’t great. He was on the ice for two of the Sharks’ goals and was routinely outmuscled on most, if not all, loose pucks that he went for. His on-ice analytics were pretty brutal as well, as he had a 27.25% expected goal share, comfortably the lowest on the team. Although he did well to breathe some life back into the team on that scrum in the third period, this wasn’t a good game for Turcotte overall.

Team Overall: C+

Apart from a couple of standout performances, the rest of the team was generally just okay. Generating chances doesn’t mean much when multiple defensive lapses offset that positive impact. Ideally, I would have liked to see changes to the power play and better shot selection in this game, and hopefully, they can be implemented in the Kings’ game tonight. Next stop, back home in Boston!