EL SEGUNDO — These days, a trip to the Toyota Performance Center where the Kings practice has a scavenger-hunt vibe.
The Kings were one of two NHL teams looking high and low for their first win of the campaign.
Head coach Peter Laviolette, whose first-year bump seems to be delayed significantly, left no stone unturned as he switched up both forward lines and defense pairings. He cautioned, however, that lineups in practice may not transfer completely to the game against the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
Team captain Drew Doughty continued to emphasize that it wasn’t a lack of effort or bad fortune that was plaguing the team but rather momentary lapses. He also dismissed any notion that a relatively challenging early-season schedule played a factor.
“It’s just not good enough,” he said. “The excuse of saying that we played some good teams, I mean, we want to be one of those teams, right?”
Doughty added: “I’m not even seeing (lapses) from our fourth-line type players, I’m seeing it from our top players. That’s why we’re losing games, your top players have to be your best players every night.”
The Kings’ new captain said he still had the utmost confidence in the group but that he wanted to instill a sense of urgency.
“I love this team, I love you guys, I truly, truly, truly believe we have the best team we’ve had here in a long time,” Doughty said. “I’m not worried about us coming back and making this a great season, but we can’t keep losing games. We’ve got to start winning.”
Doughty skated opposite Joel Edmundson. Brian Dumoulin paired with Mikey Anderson. The dynamic tandem of Brandt Clarke and Erik Gustafsson was united.
Up front, the analytical darlings but traditional-measure underachievers on the first line were split up, with Quinton Byfield on the second line between Trevor Moore and Erik Haula – Mats Zuccarello was also ramping up his participation as he recovered from an upper-body injury. The top line still featured Artemi Panarin and Adrian Kempe, who were now joined by Alex Laferriere. That meant either Kempe or Laferriere would move into the middle.
“It’s nice, too, that he’s a lefty and I’m a righty, so (on faceoffs) we can switch off on each other’s strong sides,” Laferriere said of Kempe. “Playing with those two is pretty easy, and we want to be in the ‘O’ zone the whole time. As long as we can do that, we don’t have to worry about who’s playing center.”
The NHL’s other defeated team, the Philadelphia Flyers, has scored the same 11 goals that the Kings have, but in nine losses rather than five. The Kings appear to be on that same path, however, having mustered just one goal in each of their past three outings after opening the year with eight goals in two contests.
With a game Friday night in Anaheim, Boston has had no such issues of late, starting their four-game road trip with their third straight win behind the hot hands of captain David Pastrnak and second-year standout Fraser Minten. They scored at least five goals in each of those victories.
Three of the past four meetings of the Bruins and Kings went beyond 60 minutes, with Boston taking those three decisions and the Kings earning the only decisive win.
Boston at Kings
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
How to watch: ABTV