{"id":475321,"date":"2026-02-27T15:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/475321\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T15:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:55:12","slug":"fire-hiller-chants-rain-down-as-seat-grows-hotter-for-los-angeles-kings-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/475321\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fire Hiller’ chants rain down as seat grows hotter for Los Angeles Kings head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Kings<\/a> were pummeled by the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> on Thursday for their fifth consecutive loss, and the fans at Crypto.com Arena made their feelings known about the team\u2019s current slide in the standings.<\/p>\n

Connor McDavid<\/a> contributed two points to cross the 100-point mark for the Oilers, and Leon Draisaitl<\/a> added four points as Edmonton cruised to an 8-1 victory in Los Angeles. The Kings mustered just 22 shots on net in the deflating defeat.<\/p>\n

Fans in the stands announced their ire with head coach Jim Hiller<\/a>, repeatedly chanting \u201cFire Hiller,\u201d at the third-year bench boss.<\/p>\n

Hiller, who led the Kings to the postseason in each of his first two seasons – where they were eliminated by the Oilers both times – said the only thing he can focus on is winning the next game.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy focus is on trying to win on Saturday [against the Calgary Flames<\/a>],\u201d Hiller said after the game on Thursday. \u201cWe sign up for this job. I think you\u2019re probably always concerned when you got a job in the coaching world, so that\u2019s just something that\u2019s always tucked away. But what overrides all of that is trying to get your team to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings signaled their intention to compete for the postseason earlier in February, when they acquired star forward Artemi Panarin<\/a> from the New York Rangers<\/a> in exchange for prospect Liam Greentree<\/a> and a third-round draft pick. Panarin was a minus-1 with two shots in just over 18 minutes of ice time in the loss, and has two assists in two games with Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

That loss dropped the Kings (23-21-14) to three points behind the Seattle Kraken<\/a> for the second wild-card slot in the Western Conference playoff picture. They are 10th in the conference, also trailing the Nashville Predators<\/a> as the final quarter of the season approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, 24 [games remaining] seems [like] a lot, but we\u2019ve got to get on track here real, real quick,\u201d Kings captain Anze Kopitar<\/a> said to reporters after the game. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously getting to a point where teams from the outside looking in, the chances are slimming down if you\u2019re not on the inside. So, we\u2019ve got to get there, obviously, and start winning games.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for answers moving forward, Kopitar tried to keep it simple. Kings starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper<\/a> was pulled in the second period after allowing four goals on the first 15 shots he faced, and Anton Forsberg<\/a> didn\u2019t fare much better – allowing four goals on 22 shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we\u2019ve got to keep the pucks out of our net,\u201d Kopitar said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s structure, individual effort, sacrifice, blocking shots, winning face-offs, you name it, all of the above.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings had won four of five before this current dry stretch, and the team has been in and out of the playoff picture throughout the season. A game against the basement-dwelling Flames on Saturday will provide an opportunity to right the ship after a rock-bottom showing against the Oilers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it\u2019s just the way it goes,\u201d Kings defenceman Mikey Anderson<\/a> said after the game. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s not a good time to have a game like this. I mean, I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ve had obviously one this bad this year, but for whatever reason, it came today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Kings were pummeled by the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday for their fifth consecutive loss, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[4759,198,146,5300,5,32840,4,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-475321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-edmonton","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-edmontonoilers","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-los-angeles-kings-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-26","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-oilers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116143412185078844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475321","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=475321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}