Top 10 Questions: 20256-27 Season

0:00Level up your LA King's experience with vivid seats, elite seats. All the on-ice King's action with even more exclusive access and rewards. Enjoy great seats to the game in Section 103 along with Yamabah Club Access and parking included with your purchase. Plus get a free Team LA King's shop item at the game. Score your vivid seats, elite seats tickets today and earn perks on each purchase from the only leading ticket company with a rewards program. Experience it live with vivid seats, the official partner of the LA King's. Delisting to all the King's men, the official podcast of the LA King's. Now, here's your host, Jesse Cohen. Welcome back, King's fans, to a brand new episode of all the King's men joining me today's act daily. How are you doing today's act? Jesse, I am doing well. A little bit raspy for some reason, but excited to talk about the LA King's because we are here. You were cheering illegally in the press box for all those goals scored against Anaheim on season. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. So this episode is sort of unofficially the season premiere of the new season of all the King's men because we are now at the start of the 2026 27 season for the LA Kings.

1:04And we're going to do the top 10 questions facing the Kings ordinarily. We would have the broadcasters with us. There was scheduling issues. So Zach and I are just going to tackle it and classic. I remember that's you in the office where Charles minor calls in Dwight and also Jim. Yeah, come along after thought. Right. Um, plan B. So this one was tougher than usual. Usually we're sort of scrambling to get to 10 and we're sort of like making up and it's like, well, thank God we have those last two questions that are featured every single year. This year we're sort of condensing questions into one another to keep it to 10 because there are so many unknowns about this season. Yeah. So I think we're just going to dive straight into the first one, which is how many games will Kevin Fiala play in the 2026 27 season? It's a perfect first question and we don't know the answer to it, but we know the timeline that the Kings are hopeful for with Kevin Fiala, which would put him in the low 70s range assuming he's back on schedule in the best case scenario.

2:07But that also assumes full health the rest of the year. I think it's an important question because the Kings were built this team at least around depth on the wings. And a part of that was getting Kevin Fiala back from his injury at the Olympics, putting him in the lineup with our Temi Pinaran with Matt Zucarillo. Like, we haven't seen those three players there together. And when you take him out, it moves someone else up and moves someone else up into that spot and it does dwindle your depth a little bit. So you can look at it two ways. Like, it takes away from the best area of the team or the Kings were better equipped to handle his injury than others. You know, if Brent Clark or Drew Doudy went down, the Kings would not have the same caliber of depth to step up and fill those spots. But also, I think the most important question because not only does it affect the top six and how the top six is structured, I mean, presumably it doesn't change the top line, but it absolutely changes the second line, which could change the third line and will change the fourth line because Kevin Fiala in somebody else out. So it's a trickle down.

3:08Yeah. So does the fourth line lose size? Does it lose skill? Does somebody have to go back to Ontario? Like, it just changes all of the equations. And like I said, that we saw on Saturday and we don't know how long this line will stay together, but we saw Zuccarello, Tercaudd and Lafayette. Yeah. It's the second line that I'm really happy to watch and find out how good they are. Yeah. But once Fiala comes back, that's the end of that line because Kevin Fiala, like the one thing we know is that Kevin Fiala will be your second line left winger if Artemis Bener and is healthy and is serving as the top line left winger. It certainly changes something, right? That's a line we never would have seen if not for this injury. Right. And it also, you know, like if there was any conversation of whether Adrian Kempe would play center or wing, I think that was mostly ended when Fiala got injured. Yeah. Like, I don't think it makes sense to do without Fiala in because then you're stretching two players up and you're basically losing a full line of your death on the wings. But if you have Fiala and maybe things don't work or you need, you feel you need more

4:09down the middle, you could look at moving Kempe back to center at some point if you have Fiala. It's really interesting. Like, I think this is a big year, I think, for Kevin. It's big to get him back in and hopefully he is back as the player that he was before the injury because I thought he was one of only a couple players last year who seem to produce offensively despite the team's struggles. I think you love the team. And tower play points, his numbers weren't where they were for his career, but they were better than most on the team. So I hope the answer to this question starts with the seven. Yeah. And part of the reason that this is such a big question is the date that Ken Holland gave for a tentative return to the team was November 1st. I think that's 13 games into the season. Those are a pretty important 13 games. And the next seven, eight, 10 games on the schedule after that are equally important. You know, not officially, but because of the Thanksgiving, if your team's in a playoff

5:11spot, etc. And you know, new coaching staff, new roster, like, if the team needs to get out to a hot start, I would think, or at least a solid start. You can't stumble like last year. So to have Kevin Fiala absent right now, fortunately, there's oodles of days off in between games at the beginning of the schedule. It's also a little bit fortunate to you that Kevin has played for Peter Lava, you'll let before. Yeah. Which is one of like three or four guys, you could say that for it, to wear like, he's not coming in completely dark on the systems and the concepts. Like, he at least kind of has that leg up. Yeah. So 13 games, you know, like you said, that puts his max at low 70. Low 70s, yeah. That's if everything goes perfectly, which in my experience rarely happens. So I agree. And that's assuming nobody else gets hurt in the end. Which so if it's in the 60s, I think it's still a pretty good win. You know, if he's somewhere in the mid 60s, I think you're probably pretty happy with it when you think about where he's at today. Yeah. The next one and, you know, again, to be clear, the point of these conversations is never

6:11to have the answers. It's just to lay out these are these storylines that will impact the team all year long. The next one is how will the goal tending pan out? And yes, we're recording this Monday the 28th. You'll see it later this week. But Eric Portillo was assigned very late in camp to Ontario, played in a game in Ontario last night. But may find himself recalled. Forsberg and Kemper are both in their 30s. Kemper has dealt with injury issues. Portillo is that they have not really satisfactorily resolved the five man goal tending log jam. I'm not sure there is a line. I shouldn't say I'm not sure. I know there isn't a desirable solution to it. So the question is which of a handful of possible outcomes that you don't want. Do you take in order to give you the best chance over an 84 game schedule? Because ultimately that's what this is about. This king season, not this Darcy Kemper season or this hands on Forsberg season or this

7:16Eric Portillo season. The question is how do you get the most wins and how do you get the most saves, I guess, out of those five goal tenders? I think for this conversation, I'm going to ignore the George Slukinski situation because we're talking to kings, not the development of those guys. It's interesting. You have three goalies, two veterans and then Portillo who's kind of on the cusp all in the final year of their contract. And all of whom have upside, all of whom have question marks. And you're right. If there was an ideal solution, I think we would have already, it would have been laid out to us or we would be seeing it. And I think we're seeing the fact that we don't have one is a answer to that question. Is there isn't really an ideal answer? I think that the best case scenario for the kings would be that Darcy Kemper bounces back. Yeah. Like that's for all parties involved. That is the best case scenario. Darcy Kemper was a revelation in 2425. His number is still very good up until the game in Dallas struggled after that.

8:16And I think that the Olympics compounded the problem with the travel that he had. And he just wasn't able to find it down the stretch. Forsberg took over and I thought played very well. In April, I think he was probably what reason number one they made the playoffs was his play. Reason number one in the series was as competitive as it was in those first two games was Forsberg's play. So it feels to me like it's not even a 1a1b. It feels like it's like a 1a1a1b. Like it feels like it's dead. The joke to me about a 1a1b situation is we say it as if to imply that like it's a tandem. Yeah. But a comes from being the RV. So like yeah, Darcy Kemper is the 1a1b. Yeah. And the 1a1b. So even if it's true that it is a 1a1b in the traditional sense, he's still the 1a. It feels like we're going to see a fairly even time share until one goalie shows that it should not be an even time share. I don't know if you feel the same way. No, I do. And I think one of the reasons I said getting the most saves or wins out of the five, even

9:17those looking in George don't immediately factor into the equation. You know, I will get into this in future questions. Like the, you know, sometimes people come up and they say, okay, well, we'll, you know, we'll Jared Wright get into a game and it's like, well, not only does do injuries or suspensions or time away from the team for personal reasons, whatever have to occur, they have to occur in specific sequences in order for specific players to reach. So I don't want to say it's impossible that a Slikinski or a George might play one game for a game because who knows? You can see a world where they do. Yeah. And you want all everybody in the system available to perform. So that'll be a huge goal tending. I mean, not that's usually why this is near the top of the list. It's not a brilliant observation. Yeah. You say the goal tending plays a huge right like how many coaches have lost their job because their goalie just had a bad year. Yeah. Or one the coaching award because their goalie had an outstanding year. And it's probably the most volatile position out there, right? Like year to year. I think that's proven.

10:18There are, there are those hand you always talk about. There's those handful of guys who you know where they're going to be. And then there's going to be up and down up and down and. And you don't have to look any further than Winnipeg to see how the league right now values proven goal tending, right? You have arguably the biggest name goal tender in the league, openly requesting a trade not reporting the camp. And allegedly the team can't get an offer that they're happy for him. So there you go. Yeah. Next question is how many games will Eric Gustafson play? And this one is kind of a cheat to get us into talking about the entire defensive core because Eric Gustafson. By salary is the seventh defense. Right. By experience is the seventh defenseman. But by mentions alone from the coaching staff on this very show. I don't know the third, the fourth, maybe he's not the seventh. Yeah. Yeah. So the question is how many games will Eric Gustafson play? That speaks I would think not only to the health of the six defenseman above him in the

11:21lineup, but also the style of play that the coaching staff has repeatedly said they want to play. The skill sets that every defenseman has, how the pairs work out, you know, if you have, you know, as you have lobbied for Anderson and Clark and Dowdy and Dumelon who have looked very good, well, that leaves Edmondson and Cece. Yeah. You know, if both of them are healthy, how does Gustafson factor in? If somebody isn't healthy, like what if somebody on the right side isn't healthy? Yeah. Right. Drew Doughty has suffered injuries before in recent years. If he gets hurt, you know, changes the equation. Does somebody move over to the right to make room for Gustafson to seven? So that is sort of the big question is how many games will Eric Gustafson play? And there's a few ways that he could play them, right? Like you could, okay, Joel Edmondson, as we know it right now, day to day. And if he is not able to play game one, Eric Gustafson will play. Yep. I think I feel pretty confident in saying. I think that we might see shorter leashes with things than we did last year, meaning performance

12:23driven play, you know, I don't think. I think if the Kings had an Eric Gustafson last year, and I could be completely wrong in saying this, a player who plays differently, I think that the Kings might have made some changes differently than they did last year. I don't know if that's accurate. It was a different staff and it doesn't really matter, but that's my opinion. I think this coaching staff will be more willing to do that if things aren't working. And they have a player like Gustafson who has been successful under Lovia let and Howesley before. I don't think there'll be as much hesitation in putting him in. Todd McLean used to love these little metaphors and analogies that were very particular to him. And he would always talk about the ATM. Yes. And how guys have accounts and you know veterans basically. But all he was basically saying was reputation will cover for mistakes or undesirable play. More for some players. Yeah. Yeah. The more you're an on jacobitar or a drudoutie, the more the more leash you get to make errors on the ice. It's a very nice way of saying.

13:24I'm not going to bench on jacobitar for the same turnover as I might bench the Ricky fourth line center. The current coaching staff Peter Lovia let Ray Whitney, Phil Howesley, they have all spoken they haven't directly contradicted that mentality, but they have heavily implied that they have the opposite mentality. Which is like if you don't play the way we want you to, you won't play. Yeah. And also they're a brand new staff. So yeah, obviously everybody knows drudouties resume. But they haven't coached drudoutie. So the ATM is way more theoretical than it would be under Todd McLean who coached him for five years or whatever. So it'll be very, if I could give the coaching staff truth serum and ask them one question, I think today it would be how do you feel about that idea of the ATM. And I do think that like Gustafson, I think is the perfect litmus test of that exact theory because if you want to put in a guy who does things the way that they want them done, Eric Gustafson plays that way.

14:29Now he's 34 years old and played the HL for the bulk of last year. So I'm not, you know, I'm not saying he's prime Phil Howesley or even prime Eric Gustafson, right? I don't think that he's coming in and they're going to be like, all right, Eric, we need 24 minutes from you. Like he's going to come in. He would feature on the power play. He would probably play on a third pair and he would move the puck. The Kings have a lot of guys who can play defense. So I don't think finding him a partner who can play the other way is going to be a problem. I don't know. I just have always had the feeling that he's not just here to sit in the press box and hop on the plane and skate after practice. Like I feel like he was signed for a reason. And I think that we're going to see maybe a higher number than you might think of a seventh defense. Certainly more than Jacob of Rory. I would take you over on that one for sure. The other side of this coin is the next question, which is how many games will Brent Clark lead the team in ice time? Because Brent Clark obviously a huge talking point for King's front office coaching staff media fans for the last five years.

15:34Every year there's a lot of talk about Brent Clark. Yeah. And listen, I don't feel bad about not believing it every year. This year is the first year where I have considered that maybe the talk might be real. I think that one, I like the way you worded the question. I think that's a good way to do it. People I think about what I think people don't understand is like playing Brent Clark more doesn't mean that we have to play Drew Doudy 17 minutes a game. Yeah. Like there is a very, very, very big difference between playing Brent Clark more and Drew Doudy's ice time being like cut substantially. Like both of those defensemen should be playing 20 plus minutes a game. I think Brent Clark will lead the team in time of ice several times. But not every night. Yeah, right. You know, and I think that if we're talking about what you just said with the last question, he shouldn't lead the team in time on ice every night because they're going to be nice where he's not going to play well. You know, like if that's what we're doing, if we're holding everyone to the same standard, then the guys playing well should play more.

16:39Like I thought the best parent camp was maybe Drew Doudy. And if they're playing better, they should play more. And if it's Clark and Anderson and they're playing better, they should play more. I think that's that's what you get when you can have those, I think, as your top two pairs where as before, it almost was like it had to be in a certain order. Now I feel like it could change more. So I'm I don't know the exact answer to the question. It's a hard one, but it's a very good question. And I think it should be more than it was last year. We could break this question down into all sorts of comfort. So many pieces like yeah, even strength time on ice, special teams time on ice. Cause you know, let's say Panarin gets on a heater and the power play goes, I don't know, 10 games of performing really, really well. Yeah, that could be two minutes per power play. The Brankler just doesn't come off the ice. And what if they have eight power plays? Yeah, no, so there's all sorts of crazy things. But generally speaking at the end of the year, it'll be interesting to look back and see. You know, where do we put the label of 1D? Is it on Daudi or is it on Clark?

17:41Because this is the first year where it's felt like there might be an actual vulnerability. 1D A and 1D B exactly. The next question is sort of a knock on of the Kevin Fiala question, but it's not as much to do with health. We hope. And that is how many games will Zucarillo and Perry play? Now I singled those two guys out because Matt Zucarillo is 39 and Corey Perry is 41. And in a season with long stretches and long road trips and back-to-backs and three games and four nights, they're going to be nights where those guys are given the night off just cause. There's going to be nights where those guys aren't available for a myriad of right, Corey Perry currently not available for the team. Matt Zucarillo started training camp, you know, in a red non-contactors. So with a perfectly healthy peak version of each of these players, I would expect Matt Zucarillo to play 84 games. I would expect Corey Perry to play 84 games. That's not reality. Neither one of them has played 82 games or full season in a few years.

18:45Corey Perry's spot in the lineup. I'm not necessarily sure I know. I would presume fourth line. But last year he was fourth line and also featured on the power play. Yep. So and would feature up and down the lineup. So where does he fit into this team, which is deeper on the wings? Yeah. Matt Zucarillo currently playing on the second line with Turkot in the fair year. When Fiala comes back, do you keep that line? How does his play like who knows, right? Like Victor Arvitz was brought in to play with Anjikopatar and wound up on arguably the third line with Denou and more. Fend on the year. Yeah. So like how many games with those two players play will have so many more effects up and down the lineup? And I think they kind of have an effect on each other. You know, like if Zucarillo is out, I don't I think we might see more of Perry, right? Because that's a spot in the wings that's now open. I think that you go in with Zucarillo, hoping for 84 games, but not planning for 84 games. I think it would be you look at his history.

19:45He's an older player who has played in that 60 high 60s low 70s range over the last couple of years. I think last year he played less in the Nassota. So you have to understand that like there might be stretches where he's out. And the Kings are deep on the wings if Fiala's back. They can cover for that better than years past. But I think it would be kind of foolish to say we're going to get 84 games from both those guys. It's probably not going to happen for one reason or another. And the priority probably has to be like getting the most you can out of them and making sure towards the end of the year these guys are ready to go. Especially I think with Zucarillo who is a part of the top six and the power play. And sort of unspoken but hovering under all of these conversations with Fiala and Zucarillo and Perry and even Gustafson really is that that cluster of bubble players who hover between L.A. and Ontario. So Jared, right, like how many games does Jared, right, get back into because of injuries. How many games does Angus Booth play this season? How many get you know,

20:47does Kenny Conner's get a recall? Like there's all these names that there's only so much they can do in Ontario. And a lot of it just comes down to what happens with the roster in L.A. And it's like okay, when the first time happen that you need somebody, you know, is it Taylor Ward? Is it Jared? Right. Is it Kenny Conner's? Is Martin Chromiake having a heck of a year? You know, like there's a lot of guys who it could be and it can probably only be one guy at once. You know, it's not like we're going to see most likely a wave of guys coming up. Well, and that's why we get back to the it has to be the right circumstance of exactly availability, right? Like Chromiake gets called up if there is a path created specifically for him to get like I don't think Martin Chromiake would be recalled to replace Andre Lee. Right. I think he'd be Jared Rider or probably Taylor Ward or one of those guys. But if Zucarillo and Fiala are unavailable, maybe suddenly the Chromiake, yeah, like gets shown up, you know, above Gotham. Yeah. The next, sorry, the next question. And this one is this one's a bit of fan service, but I think it's important. And I think it reflects a lot of other conversations. The next question is how

21:51many points will Quentin buy field score? I'm on record repeatedly in the past. And I will continue to feel this way. I used to say it about Andre Coopetsar. I will now just shift it over to Quentin buy field. I personally don't care. I'm going to look straight at the camera when I say right down the barrel. I don't care how many points individual players score. I care how many points the team winds up with at the end. However, this is the first year that Quentin buy field has gotten the designate the unquestioned designation as your number one center. He's playing in between the best winger the Kings have probably had in decades. And the second best. Yeah. So this is the year that every national news coverage story about the Kings anytime somebody goes on with Merrick or Wishinsky or the spit and chicklets or NH on that work, whatever it is, one of the first questions is is this the Quentin buy field breakout year? I don't even know what a breakout year would look like for Quentin buy field points wise, but I mean, I do think it is very clearly an important part

22:53of this season. It feels like it has to be a career high at the very least. Yes. Not by one. You know, no, no, it has to be a significant increase. If he's going to play five on five with Panerra and Kempay, and if he's going to be on that power play that we saw over the weekend, which won preseason game, but it looked very potent. His numbers have to be higher. I could see him scoring 30 goals and I could see him having 70 plus points. He doesn't need to have 100. No. And also like part of what he does, like if if Kempay and Panerra are on career year paces and he's a little bit lower, but the line is working, that's you can live with that too, because the line is working. But I have a hard time believing that if those guys are producing heavily, that he's not going to get in the mix as well. And I it just really feels like this is the time, but at the same time, like it needs to be the time. You know, like it feels does it feel like it because it feels like it? Does it feel like it because there are no other options? What I care more about than the point total is over the last, I don't know, two or three years,

23:56it feels like we hit February or March. And by field was like 30 points or 40 points and was like, oh no, yeah, what's happening? And then he'd go on a tear. Score 20 points in 13 games, finish the season with and you're like, oh, okay, 20 goals to be points. I know, bro, whatever. I don't I can't I don't think the team can handle that this year. I can't handle it this year. I want, you know, the all-star break to roll around. And he's at least in the top 30 in scoring among centers, top 32, I guess. Like, yeah, it's like two years in a row, right? It's been the good defense, no scoring. Right. And then the last month or two in explosion. And then it comes into the summer. You're like, okay, look at the finish to the year. Let's carry that over. This has to be the year that it carries over for more than, yeah, for a little bit longer. It just it can't be that staggered because if you get to that point now, it feels like the Kings won't be where they need to be if he's that far off. And let's, I mean, let's be just honest about it. They've made the playoffs in the last two

24:58years. Thanks to late season pushes. Yeah. And he's been a part of that. Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. But I just with the new coaching staff and, you know, Copazar gone and the whole thing. Let's skip the late season push. Yeah, let's just get off. Bank those points early and then coast. If he disappears for January, because he's already at 40 something points, fine. I got no beef. We all know the Kings don't score goals. Well, the next question. And this one is sort of broader philosophical question about the team. Will the systems change tilt the goal differential numbers? Because it's not a hundred percent one for one that teams with positive goal differentials make the playoffs in teams of the negative goal differentials miss the playoffs. Yeah, certainly not last year. But it's a pretty good sheet that like if you look at the NHL website, if you look at the standings, the green numbers make it and the red numbers don't usually pretty well sorted. And within like a margin of the Kings were an outlier last year and a year where the division was very weak. And, you know, a couple of years ago, I think Washington made the playoffs with like a

25:58minus 34. Yeah, yeah. But they're like that's a weird. Yeah, got swept or in the right. They were 18 and they got swept. So over the last, I don't know, 10, 15, 20 years, the Kings have relied on stingy defense to tilt that number in their favor. They didn't score a lot of goals, but they didn't allow any goals. Like even in, I think it was, I can't remember what the last year that they won the Masterton, not the Masterton. The Jennings. Yeah, thank you. The Jennings trophy for the team that allows the view of schools might have been 2017 or 18. Yeah. And it was like it wasn't a good season, but they just didn't allow any goals. Yeah. This new coaching staff preaching this new system with certain players gone certain players getting older. We expect them to score more goals. They have to score more goals. Otherwise, it's going to be a disaster of a season. So the question then becomes, well, how many more goals will they allow? The coaching staff has preached offensive attack, but under every conversation, is this layer of

27:01defensive, referring back to the importance of defense. We can't have the first two months of the 2223 LA Kings where every game was 7, 6 or 9, 8. It can't be that. I think that both numbers will be higher than they were last year. The question is just by how much? Because if you score 50 more goals, great. But if you allow 70 more goals, well, you're worse. So one area that I think you can limit that is the penalty kill. I know we'll get to special teams, but if the Kings penalty kill is better than it was last year, they'll give up fewer goals in that situation, which gives you a little bit more of a grace period five and five. I feel like we're going to see more games that are I don't know, four to three instead of last year was always two to one. Like how many two to one wins or losses in overtime that we see last year? It felt like 30. It was too many. Yeah, wait. So this year's team, I I've truly believe will score more goals. I'm interested to see

28:04when you get into real games against good opponents, which the Kings have early in the season. How do they handle when the system breaks down? How do they handle when maybe the pinch misses and it leads to odd man rushes the other way? Are they coming left and right or are they sporadic? That to me will be the real test of like, okay, how does this work for this team? Like, I think they're going to score more goals either way, but they have to still be able to defend at least, you know, capable. Last season, the Kings scored 225 goals. Can you name the three teams that scored fewer goals than them last year? Chicago? Yeah, they were second to last. Yeah. Who else? Vancouver? Yeah. And Calgary? Yeah. There you go. One to well. Yeah, Chicago goes Vancouver 218. Chicago 213. Calgary 2112. Yeah. The Kings cannot just cannot be that far down. They can't be that far down. And they allowed 247, which wasn't terrible, but for the Kings was shockingly high in previous years. Like the Kings allowed 206 that year before. Yeah. That's

29:08a pretty big probably top three. Yeah, top two. Yeah. And had a plus 44 gold differential. Now that was the year that they will finish with 105 points, et cetera. But yeah, they need to that gold differential can't slip out of control. And it'll be really interesting to see and this is just my cynicism as a long time. Kings fan creeping in, but everything the coaching staff says sounds great. Yeah. I want to know if November 1st rolls around and the Kings are five and eight. Right. Kevin Fial is not back. And they're allowing tons of goals. Everything sounds great when you're right. Yeah. Yeah. So like it's the old Mike Tyson. Everyone's got a plan until you get punched in the mouth. Yeah. If the Kings get punched in the mouth, how long does all of that talk hold up? Because as much as annoying as it is, as boring as it is, as much as nobody wants to see it from the 300s, that defensive identity is behind wins. Yeah. This just has been so next question is where will the special teams rank in the league? Now this,

30:13I don't love the phrasing of this question because I don't particularly care about the rankings. Yeah. It's one of those things that like has become industry standard that I just bristle at. But that's whatever that's a personal issue. The power play and penalty kill very clearly focuses from the coaching staff in all season talk. And I would say they've practiced what they've preached with how camp has been structured specifically the power play. I mean, we've seen more power play work this camp than I can recall that any camp we've seen probably more three on three work than most young way way more three. Yeah. I don't think we've seen maybe a ton of penalty kill work, but it's been more de facto like you're working on the penalty kill when you work on the power play. But I do think most of the special teams has been tailored towards power play. You said it for goals scored and it's the same for special teams like the kings cannot finish in the bottom five in both categories again. And if they do, they're probably going to miss the playoffs. I don't see how they could do that again and get in. The power play specifically looked very good

31:16in the preseason finale. The pieces are very exciting. The concepts are very exciting. Again, it's easy to look and sound good when you're zero and zero, but that feels like the biggest like area of upside for the team in my opinion is like, I'm really excited to see how that power play works. Power plays are such a funny thing because I don't know off the top my head what percentage of ice time is spent by an average team on the power play during a season. It's probably very small. You can find it on the website you're on right now. Well, probably I'm not going to. But like how many minutes does it, you know, like if you're lucky, you get four or five a game. Minutes are power plays. Power plays total, which is maybe 10 minutes out of a 60 minute game. If you perform poorly at its 10 minutes, yeah, you perform well, it's here. But during those minutes, you can, you know, if you if you front load your team with players who are good on the power play, yeah, your Zuccarello's your Penaerans. It is a tremendous advantage whereas

32:20if you have a team full of guys that can't get it done on the power play, you're just wasting time. Yeah. And, and, you know, I have pointed out in years past, not only are you wasting time, you could be hurting yourself if you're giving the other team momentum. Yeah. So like I said, I don't much care about the rankings until you start looking at stuff like, oh, the LA Kings were 27th in the league last year. The only teams worse than them were New York, Boston, Philadelphia, both New York teams actually, although it didn't the Islanders make the playoffs. Now they missed narrowly. Well, the the Anaheim ducks did make the playoffs and they had the absolute worst power play in the league. So there you go. I feel like how many times last year, did we look at a game in the third period? It was tied at one and the Kings got a power play with six minutes left. Yeah. And it felt like just go step on the throat and it felt like it never happened. I don't know. Like, and that was what Ray Whitney was talking about, right? He's like, you don't want to be one for five, but if you're one for five is a third period goal that puts your team ahead or ties the game up late. Like the power play did its job. Like there is something to

33:21the notion of clutch performance, I think on special teams. Like you get a kill with three minutes left in your upper goal. Like that kill is just simply more important than the one in the first period at zero zero. Well, and we talked about this in our training camp recap, but that goal that the Kings scored against Anaheim, the final preseason game, the interchange between Kempay, Panarin and Zukarello. Yeah. The reason, excuse me now, my voice is right. The reason you want players with that kind of on ice vision is specifically for those moments. Yeah. Exactly. Like if Panarin and Kempay don't do anything at five on five, but every time there's a man advantage, they have the room, the space, the creativity and the ability to take advantage of it, you're that much more dangerous because of it. Yeah. And then the flip side, of course, is the penalty kill. The Kings never really worked terrible on the penalty go last year. They were eight over all at 81.4%. That is not true. Is it not? No. Kings were looking at two years ago. King Kings were the bottom five on the kill last year. All right. That's my fault for them. So that

34:24was the power play two years ago. They were bottom five in both. Yeah. You're right. Out of 74.8. All right. That is terrible. Well, my bad. Delete that. Edit that out. It was a very poor year for special teams, which yeah. Backing up a little bit to talk about that goal, differential conversation. If the power play is great, like I subscribe to the Brian Burke. It's a little outdated, but I subscribe to the 80% on the power play, 20% on the penalty kill. As long as the two numbers add up to more than 100, you're okay. You should be okay. Yeah. And if that's the case, like that's a very big improvement. You know, because last year, you're looking at like 93, 92 when you add them up, like that's well below. So I did the math. I think over the summer. And I don't remember it fully, but I think it was if last year's team was league average on both, it would have been like a 25 goal jump. Yeah. Which brings you from the red to the green in the goal differential. And that's just league average. Right. Now that's just that's not a real thing. It's made up numbers, but like

35:28we they don't have to be top five in both. They just can't be bottom five. Yeah. Well, that's and that's why I say like the rankings to me are kind of weird because you can't control how everybody else in the league does anything. So saying like what we need to top five offense is like, well, both if you're six, you still yeah, pretty good. Yeah. And like how I need to know the gap, like if you're top five because the gap between four and five is 100 goals. Okay. The other thing is like with power play is like what's better two for eight or one for three. Yeah. Because one for three is going to look better on the percentage page, but two for eight scored two goals. Yeah. And might win you the game. Whereas one for three. Yeah. Which is maybe like how that's flawed, right? Is because it's strictly percentage. Yeah. Well, that's that's now we're just getting into a whole side conversation. But this is my beef with people who claim analytics. Because analytics doesn't the word analytics doesn't mean anything. Right. It's like marketing. Yeah. And the practice of analytics should in theory just be analyzing the data. Yeah. But analyzing means

36:30all of it. Not just oh, well, 25% is worse than 33. Right. So therefore like that's not analytics. Yeah. Right. Something that I can tell you. Yeah. Anyway, the next question in this sort of leads into that is and these are the the last two questions of the two questions that we have every year when talking about, you know, the top 10 questions for the team. It's what will happen to the Pacific. And I was listening to something as you walked up this morning and I was waiting to begin this recording. Because the narrative that keeps getting repeated that I is true is factually correct and shouldn't be ignored. But is a little bit of marketing. Okay. Is that the King's finished five points out of first place last year in the Pacific. Mm hmm. Factually correct. That's because the Pacific was terrible. Right. And shouldn't be viewed as some sort of like crowning achievement of how good the Kings were last year. Right. The only reason the entire hockey world wasn't talking about how hilarious Vegas's overtime record was last year is because the Kings were somehow worse.

37:31Yeah. And so all of these questions, where will the Gold differential be, where will the special teams rank, all of that will be impacted a lot by Dysan Oze and Anaheim Switch places. Does Edmonton continue to make the playoffs or do they slide back a little bit. Yeah. What happens with Vegas, right? Like I am will, M and will forever be of the opinion that Vegas has a a ceiling and you know, eventually they'll hit it and then they'll just become like every other dumb team in the league. But they got a lot of good players. Yes they do. And have been the cream of the division for however many years. Connor McDavid last year called the division of pillow fight. Yeah. I thought that's one of the most accurate terms to describe it. I guess it was a good year for the Kings to struggle. Yeah. Because they snuck in despite no chance they make the playoffs in any other season with that kind of point. With that point, total. I don't I don't see it. And probably including this one. Yeah.

38:31I the Pacific is so interesting because it was such a slog last year. Vegas and Edmonton, the personnel looks relatively similar. Like a player here, a player there, a player and a player out new coaches. But it's not like either of those teams had drastic off seasons. I didn't feel. Then there's the Kings who we've talked about a lot. The ducks and sharks I think are the on paper, the tipping point. Yeah. Like they are the teams that you're wondering like, okay, the ducks over achieved on expectations last year. And they had a great year. They were a good team. But they are a lot thinner than they were last year. A lot of their depth is gone. Especially on D. I'm sorry to interrupt. I want to poke one hole. People and this is just because I don't like the ducks. I'm getting tired of people talking about what a great year the ducks had. They had a great year for who they had been prior to that. They had 92 points and were a minus 15 gold differential. Like they made the playoffs also because the division was bad.

39:32But they had a what 15, 20 point jump like they improved. Yeah. But it was a good year for them. Yeah. They didn't become like cup contenders overnight or any. No. Yeah. All right. But they made the playoffs. They won around in the playoffs. Yeah. Absolutely. They they were a solid team. They lost a lot of their pieces. The players that they signed this summer are not new players. Their players they already had who are now just much more expensive players. A team that had a minus 15 gold differential and got in that strikes me as a prime regression candidate. However, they do have good young players. They have a very, you know, Hall of Fame coach. So they're interesting. San Jose feels like, I mean, how much can that can back when Celebrity just take that step? Like if he takes another step forward like it just is, you know, the next McD David crossby type player. He can get them in. Yeah. They added depth pieces who you look at and say like, I don't love those contracts. But they're still solid players like the trubas and the nurses are good NHL players

40:37who are probably overpaid. But that doesn't make them bad players. And the sharks are a better team on paper than last year. In my head, and I know that this is not necessarily true. In my head, San Jose basically went to the yard sales of every other Pacific division team. Yeah. And took the arm war that has been trying to that team's been trying to get rid of. And the sharks were like, okay, I'll have it. We have cap space. I don't have an arm in my apartment. So, all right. And I just feel like I don't expect the sharks to be cup contenders. Yeah. But I do expect them to like I said, I expect them to swap places with Anon. I feel like they're going to be better. Yeah. And they're going to be a threat to LA. The other three, someone who you don't expect to be good always is like on paper, you look at Seattle Vancouver Calgary and say like they're probably at a different place in their process than the other five teams. But you never know. Seattle was that that one year when they made the playoffs. And they were in the mix. So I don't know. I feel like the Pacific, it can't be worse, right?

41:37It'd be hard to be hard. In my personal experience, it can always get worse. But yes, I mean, so I look at Vancouver who was 58 points with a minus 100 goal differential. Yeah. And I just go in order to improve to the point that they're a threat, they have to get so much better. It seems impossible. Yeah. I mean, it just seems impossible. And yet it could. I didn't expect them to be as bad as they were last year. So who knows? So the final question then is, and this is, I call this the Jim Fox special, what do the Kings need to do to make the playoffs? And this will sort of cut touch on all of the previous things we've talked about. My opinion is last summer, the Kings took what they did well and they doubled down and said, yeah, we play defense now. We're going to play defense even better. It didn't work. No, it did not. This year, I think the Kings looked at what they did last year and said, we're going to try to improve what we did not do well, which is the offensive part of the

42:41game and the special teams. They've clearly put a lot of focus on those areas. Like, I think we would agree the Kings will score more goals this year. And I can't say for sure the special teams will be better, but it certainly won't do like lack of trying. Like they're putting multiple coaches on special teams, lots of practice time. They acquired players specifically who play on special team situations like they address special teams, whether it works or not, I don't know, but they addressed it. They make the playoffs if the things that were poor last year and were addressed improve as desired and they get more consistent goal tending behind those things. I can't believe I'm about to say what I'm about to say. In order for the Kings to make the playoffs, the thing, the number one thing I think they need to do, apologies to everybody who's tired of me talking about Ted Lasso is believe if things go badly, you can't regress. Yeah. Like you have

43:42committed to this stylistic change to this shift in identity. Ajay Kopotar is gone, Drew Doudy's the captain, Brent Clark, and Quentin Byfield, this now has has to be you have been talking about it for however many years. This now has to be it. And if it if you stumble, the only way through is forward. Yeah. Like you're going to struggle. There's going to be nights stretches on the calendar where you lose three of five. Yep. And you get blown out. It's going to happen every year, right? The stinkers, I think, talking about you're going to have them. Yeah. Don't then go back to one, three, one, you know, dump and chase. Like cannot do that. This is what you've decided to do. This is the team you've built to do that. So do it and trust that you've made the right decisions. And if you haven't and you miss the playoffs, at the end of the year, look back and evaluate where things wrong and figured out from there. But for right now. Yeah. You've laid out one path for

44:45yourself and you got to you got to walk it. I would like to think that Peter Lava, let plays a big role in steering that ship through, you know, like he's a veteran. He's a Stanley Cup winner. He does not seem to be compromising on his identity. No. So he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who says, ah, like we're, I don't know, we're eight and eight. We're not we're not looking as clean as we want to. We got to like he seems like he will continue to persist and he will maybe change the personnel before he changes the system. Yeah. And I mean, because it is the coaches first year, because Kenny Holland is where he's at in his career. Like I just don't think this is the kind of thing where anybody's, first of all, nobody's legacy is on the line. No. Like Drew Doudy, Hall of Famer. Doesn't matter. Peter Lava, like Cup winner, Ken Holland, Cup winner. Yeah. You know, our Tammy Pinaran is our Tammy Pint. Like everybody knows who they are. Yeah. No one's getting fired. No one's getting demoted. Nobody's, you know, losing a Hall of Fam bid. This isn't that scene. And remember the Titans where the guy comes up and says, you just lost yourself

45:45the Hall of Fam. So that's why I say like you made this choice. So be it. Yeah. And hopefully we won't have the many opportunities for that challenge to, you know, occur. Hopefully they get off to a strong start and they're up, you know, leading the division 20, 30, 40 games into the season. But if if not, if there is a stumble, if there are injuries of whatever, I just think you have to stay the course. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm not sure what the alternative is at this point. I agree. That's going to do it for this episode. Zach Dooley, thank you. It was always for joining me. Thank you for having me. It's going to be a fun 84 games. King's fans stick with us. We're going to revisit these questions as the season progresses. And of course, we'll have more player and coach interviews for you as the season goes on. Thanks for watching.