If General Manager Rob Blake built the 2024-25 Los Angeles Kings with the idea that they could withstand “uncomfortable” portions of a grueling regular season, then his theory is about to be put to the test.
With 57 games remaining in their season, the Kings have the 7th most difficult schedule in the NHL, according to Tankathon. They still have Winnipeg (x2), Dallas (x3), Vegas (x2), Carolina (x2), and the surging Edmonton Oilers (x4) to look forward to. Twice in January, they will play four games in six nights, capped off by difficult back-to-back matchups on the road (Winnipeg and Calgary, Florida and Tampa Bay).
Only six teams have a more difficult schedule than the Kings from now on. The good news is that 3 of those teams are in the Pacific Division. The bad news is, they’re all non playoff teams (Anaheim, San Jose, Seattle).
LA’s 14-8-3 record is likely better than most experts predicted. Still, even the most optimistic Kings supporter knows that December and January are historically attached to low points in the LA season. The most recent – and likely most painful – example came 12 months ago when the team won just 7 of 25 games between December 9th and January 31st. They were 16-4-3 before that stretch and looked unbeatable on most nights. It was gone in the blink of an eye, but fortunately for the team, that remarkable start to the season was enough to keep them afloat in the playoff picture.
Still, the 2023-24 Kings never really recovered. Even after a coaching change, they could never completely shake off the stench of their 25-game collapse, which included a stretch where they lost eight consecutive games.
To complicate matters further, between November 22nd and January 10th of last season, the Kings went 2-7-4 against teams with a better than .500 record and 7-0-0 against teams in the bottom nine in the NHL. The Kings have already lost games to San Jose (x2), Buffalo, and Chicago this season
The obvious question is, have the Kings done enough this season to survive another horrific winter, should it arrive with the same destructive intent?
Suppose Rob Blake’s summer acquisitions were targeted for their character and leadership qualities. In that case, they may be better equipped to work themselves out of any theoretical slumps and not allow a pothole to grow into a crater as large as the one they found themselves in one year ago.
