How the L.A. Kings reignited their offense under a new coach

It had been a while since a member of the Los Angeles Kings posted a hat trick before Adrian Kempe’s three-goal effort against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday. The last time was back during the 2015-16 season, over a year before the team would part ways with coach Darryl Sutter and general manager Dean Lombardi as part of a front office overhaul.

Those firings represented a sea of change for Los Angeles, which knew it was wasting away key years of its core under a system that was no longer working. The Kings, once celebrated for their grind-it-out, dominate-the-puck style of play, struggled to thrive in an NHL that was getting faster and more skilled with each passing day.

So the team, aware that many of its key players were locked into big contracts that would be difficult to move, fired Sutter and Lombardi in an effort to change that. The personnel would largely stay the same as a matter of necessity. The adjustments would have to come primarily from system and strategy.

Five games into the season, those changes have worked wonders. The Kings are first in the Western Conference with a 5-0-1 record, the only team in the league without a regulation loss thus far. They’re the league’s best goal prevention team, which shows the Kings haven’t moved away from their bread and butter.

But they’re also eighth in goals per game, which is a major improvement from finishing 25th a year ago. They’re averaging over a goal more per contest this season (3.50) than they did last season (2.45), even though much of the roster looks the same.

Yes, it’s only six games, so it’s impossible to ignore the sample size here. The Kings could merely be off to a hot start that will fizzle over the course of 82 games. But with Los Angeles seemingly finding new life under head coach John Stevens, let’s look at what’s different.

One of the things that’s defined Kings hockey over the past few years is their puck possession style. The team regularly finished among the leaders in shot distribution, and when it struggled, shooting percentage was typically the culprit.

That’s reflective of the team’s lack of quality scoring chances despite constantly putting the puck on net. The Kings showed the limitations of an offense focused around Corsi when you’re not getting enough of those shots from the slot or with the goalie being forced to move from side to side.

This season, the Kings have not only improved their 5-on-5 shot rate, but they have seen massive gains in terms of where those shots are coming from. They’re up to 63.5 shot attempts per 60 at 5-on-5, per Corsica Hockey, which is top 10 in the league. More importantly, those shots are primarily coming right in front of the net, where Los Angeles wasn’t generating as many chances last season.

Here’s a look at heat maps for the Kings’ 5-on-5 shot attempts between the last two seasons, courtesy of HockeyViz.com’s Micah Blake McCurdy. Slide over the image to see how much more damage the Kings are doing around the slot this season:

That’s the game-changer for the Kings offense. It’s one thing to generate a lot of shot attempts when one of your most-used areas is nearly at the blue line, which was the situation Sutter’s team found itself in last season. It’s another when you’re feasting on those chances right in front of the goalie.

Not that it’s fair to lump Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown together, but both players on hefty contracts underwhelmed last season. The Kings must’ve known that in order to reach their potential, having these two forwards playing well would be crucial.

That’s probably part of why Stevens paired the forwards for the start of the season, and the results have been stellar. For Brown in particular, the role change from the bottom six to being a top-line winger has allowed him to rediscover his offensive game.

In roughly 70 5-on-5 minutes together with Kopitar and rookie forward Alex Iafallo, Brown has three goals and three assists. Kopitar has four goals. They have a Corsi over 55 percent and have outscored opponents, 7-2, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Again, small sample, and that group isn’t going to keep shooting 14 percent all season. Iafallo, an undrafted college free agent signing from Minnesota-Duluth, has only one assist and might not be the answer as the left winger. But Kopitar and Brown have spurred each other to a strong start so far, and that’s another encouraging sign for L.A.

Los Angeles has usually put up strong shot rates over the years, so it should be no surprise that’s continued this season. What’s surprising, and worth really looking at, is that the team has shot 9.1 percent at 5-on-5, which is up 6.8 and 6.2 percent over the previous two seasons.

Part of that may simply be good luck in a small sample, but as noted above, the Kings have also made meaningful inroads toward improving their shot quality. They’re pumping out chances in the slot, and if that continues, it’s reasonable to expect they’ll have a higher shooting percentage this season.

There may be some regression coming, both in terms of shot volume and shooting percentage, but the Kings’ offensive improvement doesn’t look to be a mirage. This team is better at scoring than a year ago, even if we don’t know by how much yet. Credit to Stevens and the coaching staff for putting the team in a strong position to open the season.