Penalty-Kill Leaks Undermine Artemi Panarin’s Fast Start in Los Angeles

Three nights after Adrian Kempe tossed his stick in celebration of a dazzling hat trick during a 7-2 rout of San Jose, Los Angeles trudged off the crypto.com Arena ice on Saturday night staring at a 5-2 defeat to a slumping Pittsburgh squad that jumped ahead early and never looked back. That jarring mood swing encapsulates the stop-and-start frustration gripping Peter Laviolette’s dressing room through the opening six weeks.

Carrying a 5-8-2 record and 12 points through 15 completed outings into Tuesday’s home contest with Nashville, the seventh-place Kings own a baffling statistical profile. Los Angeles protects the puck better than every franchise in hockey and breaks completely even at five-on-five, yet a league-worst shorthanded unit has repeatedly torpedoed winnable games just as injured dynamic winger Kevin Fiala prepares to make his long-awaited season debut.

Star Additions, Coaching Pedigree, and an Early Standings Hole

Pairing head coach Peter Laviolette with marquee left winger Artemi Panarin alongside veterans Mats Zuccarello, Corey Perry, Scott Laughton, Joel Armia, and Erik Haula was engineered to transform Los Angeles from a defense-first grinder into a multifaceted Western Conference contender. With Mikey Anderson and Drew Doughty still anchoring the top blue-line pairing in front of veteran netminders Anton Forsberg and Darcy Kuemper, preseason projections placed the Kings squarely in the upper tier of the Pacific Division.

Instead, uneven starts and shorthanded meltdowns have pinned Los Angeles in seventh place at 5-8-2 (12 points), trailing third-place Anaheim by nine points albeit with three games in hand. Notably, oddsmakers refuse to write off Laviolette’s veteran group, pricing the Kings at +5500 on 2027 Stanley Cup futures boards—ahead of higher-seeded division foes Anaheim (+8000), San Jose (+10000), and Seattle (+25000). The market clearly recognizes that underlying five-on-five control and imminent roster reinforcements make Los Angeles far stronger than its November win total.

Artemi Panarin’s Playmaking and NHL-Best Puck Security

Watch Los Angeles operate at five-on-five and the structural bones of a playoff team remain unmistakable. Skating on the top forward line alongside center Alex Laferriere and sniper Adrian Kempe, Panarin has seamlessly paced the Kings across the board with eight goals, 10 assists, and 18 points. Behind them, Quinton Byfield—coming off a two-goal outburst against San Jose—drives the second unit between Trevor Moore and Perry, helping Los Angeles win 51.0 percent of its faceoffs (11th in the NHL) and maintain a dead-even 49.9 percent five-on-five shot share (27.9 shots for versus 27.9 against, a -1 shot differential tied for 13th).

Even more striking is Laviolette’s breakout precision: the Kings lead the entire NHL with the fewest giveaways at just 239 through 15 games. With Anderson and Doughty flanked by second-pair blueliners Joel Edmundson and young puck-mover Brandt Clarke plus veterans Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci on the third pair, Los Angeles rarely beats itself with careless blind passes up the middle. On the man advantage, Panarin and Kempe have guided the power play to a solid 23.1 percent clip (12th in the NHL, 12 goals on 52 opportunities), while Forsberg has posted a steady .902 save percentage.

A Dead-Last 62.5 Percent Penalty Kill Wrecks Close Games

Everything unravels the instant a King skates to the sin bin. Despite maintaining stellar stick discipline—ranking ninth best in penalty minutes (157) and facing only 48 shorthanded situations (tied for seventh fewest in the NHL)—Los Angeles owns a catastrophic 62.5 percent penalty kill that ranks 32nd and dead last across the league. Surrendering 18 power-play goals in just 48 tries has cratered the club’s Special Teams Net Index—the sum of power-play and penalty-kill rates—to an untenable 85.6 percent, dragging overall team save percentage down to .886 (tied for 20th) and goals-against average to 3.47 (23rd).

Passive diamond rotations and missed initial clears have turned routine minor penalties into momentum-killing swings, leaving an offense averaging 3.00 goals per game (45 total goals, tied for 29th in the NHL on 10.8 percent shooting, 22nd) constantly chasing multi-goal deficits. Physicality in defensive-zone battles has also lagged historic Kings standards, ranking 21st in hits (347) and 23rd in blocked shots (234) while Erik Gustafsson (out, estimated return November 12) and depth blueliner Jakub Dvorak (upper body, injured reserve until at least November 28) sit unavailable.

Neutral Five-on-Five Baseline Meets Kevin Fiala’s Impending Debut

Unlike division rivals riding extreme shooting or goaltending variance, Los Angeles carries a remarkably stable 99.4 five-on-five PDO—the combined metric of even-strength shooting and save percentage—signaling neither inflated luck nor fluke misfortune at full strength. A modest -2 overall goal differential (22nd in the NHL) underscores how close Laviolette’s club has been to hovering above .500 despite its shorthanded collapse. Welcoming crafty veteran winger Mats Zuccarello back onto the third line alongside Laughton and Armia on Tuesday night immediately deepens puck possession above a fourth unit of Andre Lee, Kenny Connors, and Haula.

The biggest offensive catalyst arrives right behind him. Dynamic winger Kevin Fiala, sidelined on injured reserve since suffering a lower-leg fracture during last winter’s international tournament after recording 18 goals and 40 points in 56 Kings games last season, has ramped up full practice reps and is eligible for activation November 14 with his season debut expected this week. Injecting Fiala’s zone-entry dynamism back into the top nine gives Laviolette two legitimate game-breaking playmakers on separate lines alongside Panarin, forcing opposing coaches out of comfortable shutdown matchups.

Games in Hand and the Urgency to Fix Shorthanded Rotations

Holding three games in hand on Anaheim, Calgary, and Edmonton—and five games in hand on San Jose and Vancouver—means Los Angeles has plenty of runway before panic sets in, provided the penalty-kill hemorrhage stops immediately. Simply lifting shorthanded efficiency from a league-worst 62.5 percent back toward a league-average 78 percent over the next 20 games would shave nearly a half-goal per contest off LA’s 3.47 GAA without altering a single five-on-five principle.

With Forsberg and Kuemper splitting winter workloads and Clarke continuing to blossom alongside veteran defenders, Los Angeles still profiles as a dangerous spring 2027 postseason threat if it climbs back into the Pacific’s top four by New Year’s Day. Between Panarin’s immediate chemistry with Kempe and Fiala’s imminent return to game action, the offensive reinforcements are in the building; now Laviolette’s penalty killers must finally clear the crease.