LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings had to work incredibly hard to generate a single goal. The Dallas Stars just needed a couple bounces.<\/p>\n
Despite being outshot 25-18, the Stars scored on their first shot of the game and on a fluky bounce late in the third period to defeat the Kings 3-1.<\/p>\n
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The game is the latest tough loss for the Kings in a season full of them \u2014 and it\u2019s highlighting what could be a divide between the players and coaches in terms of their outlook on the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was super frustrating. I thought we played a really good game. Unfortunately, just a bad bounce at the end,\u201d defenseman Drew Doughty said. \u201cI thought we deserved better, but at the same time, you\u2019ve got to get more than one goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss is the team\u2019s 11th in their last 16 games, and demonstrates the difficulty of winning for a team that is fifth-to-last in the NHL in goals per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, that\u2019s a very bad stretch,\u201d Doughty said. \u201cThe season\u2019s not gone or slipping away, I don\u2019t think. We have time to get this back and get on a roll, and I still believe that we will, but we\u2019re not trying to wait around or anything. We\u2019re trying to win every game when we go out there, but maybe a little more desperation, especially around that net, to score some more goals, because if we could score some more goals, we would be winning a lot more games.\u201d<\/p>\n
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But while Doughty focused on his team\u2019s disappointment and shortcomings, albeit as positively as he could muster, head coach Jim Hiller was more dismissive of any issues that might be arising.<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s loss was part of a volatile month for the Kings which has included a close loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, back-to-back wins over the Minnesota Wild, a four-goal loss to the Winnipeg Jets and a shootout win against the Edmonton Oilers. It\u2019s that game in Winnipeg that might emphasize the different perspectives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of good things in the last five games, to be honest. Besides the Winnipeg game, I’ve seen a lot of good things from our group,\u201d Doughty said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen desperation. I\u2019ve seen us working hard, I\u2019ve seen us playing hard, I\u2019ve seen all the guys doing what it takes to win the hockey game. And unfortunately, it\u2019s not coming out, but the only way to get through a slump like that is to continue doing the right things. And, you know, even try to work even harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As Doughty tried to remain optimistic, even he had to acknowledge the letdown against the Jets. On the other hand, Hiller refused to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played pretty well there,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got a couple bounces off some skates and some sticks. Had a bunch of chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kings are in a precarious place in the standings, narrowly holding on to the Western Conference\u2019s final wild card spot. To remain there or move up, they\u2019ll have to get the bounces to go their way, something they all want to believe is a matter of luck rather than a result of their style of play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis game\u2019s hard. Everybody\u2019s pretty good,\u201d said forward Corey Perry, who provided the biggest Kings highlight of the night with his 500th career assist. \u201cOne bounce here, one bounce there, and it could be a different story, but here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings had to work incredibly hard to generate a single goal. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5126],"tags":[884,869,147,883,146,5,2098,186,1760,240,5303,793,49582,145,5304,5302,38,4,92,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-405034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-kings","8":"tag-brandt-clarke","9":"tag-corey-perry","10":"tag-dallas-stars","11":"tag-drew-doughty","12":"tag-edmonton-oilers","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-jim-hiller","15":"tag-kings","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-kings","18":"tag-lakings","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-california","21":"tag-los-angeles-kings","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-losangeleskings","24":"tag-minnesota-wild","25":"tag-nhl","26":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","27":"tag-winnipeg-jets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115887255277086653","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}