The Los Angeles Kings learned a few things in Thursday night's loss to the Islanders.
After winning the previous six games on home ice at the Staples Center, the Kings lost in a shootout to the new-look Isles. The team placed the blame on inconsistent play in the offensive zone while head coach Darryl Sutter pointed at the two stars, Marian Gaborik and Anze Kopitar.
"We had good chances in the third, but especially on the power play, we missed the net two or three times on good chances," Sutter said. "I don't think Gabi and Kopi generated too much tonight."
Kopitar and Gaborik both missed in the shootout but the bigger problem was the team's inability to play a complete game. The Kings looked disjointed at times and dominant at others.
"We were good in spurts tonight," said defenseman Jake Muzzin. "We had some penalties and stuff that we need to clean up but I thought we did a pretty good job. We just have to put that effort in for a full 60. We were off and on a little bit and we had some chances."
Putting together a complete game shouldn't have been an issue. Their legs were fresh after an off day and Thursday's morning skate was light, but they couldn't finish any of their chances and failed to sustain any generation in the offensive zone.
"It all starts in our zone," Muzzin said. "We've got to clean up play in our zone, be quicker coming out and we need to get more chances bringing pucks to the net. We were a little bit outside tonight getting pucks and bodies to the net for tips, rebounds and screens and stuff like that."
But the biggest lesson learned was that the Islanders, who won at the Staples Center for the first time since 2003, have greatly improved.
By numbers alone, the Pacific Division is the toughest in the league at the moment, yet the Isles, who finished dead last in the Metro Division last season, have salvaged their West Coast road trip with four points in their back-to-back stretch, doing so with resilience as they defeated the Ducks in overtime Wednesday night.
With 16 points, they're in second place in the Metro Division.
"I've said it all year, we're not the same team," said Isles' forward Kyle Okposo. "We went on a three-game skid and everyone wanted to hit the panic button but in here, we didn't because we know what kind of team we have and we're a good hockey club."
Meanwhile, the fourth-place Kings have 17 points and are four points off the Ducks' Pacific Division lead with a chance to make up ground in the coming days, as three if their next four games are against Vancouver and Anaheim.
"We held a top team to one goal and we would have liked to score one more," Sutter said.
