Kings Return To The Road and The Scene of Their Collapse

Things were going swimmingly for the Los Angeles Kings this time last year. On December 9th, 2023, almost a year ago to the day, they took their 16-4-3 record into Nassau County to face the New York Islanders after winning an NHL record 11 consecutive games on the road.

What transpired that evening altered the trajectory of the Kings season in unimaginable ways.

After taking a 2-0 lead, the Kings collapsed and lost to the Islanders, 3-2 in overtime. In that game, Islanders veteran Anders Lee physically dominated LA. His gray area play, coupled with a lack of response from the Kings turned the game on its ear. First, he took Vladislav Gavrikov out of the contest with a knee-on-knee collision.

Later, he slew-footed Arthur Kaliyev and dazed him temporarily.

Moments after the contact with Kaliyev, Lee scored to put the Islanders on the board late in the game. Then, at 15:49, he tied the score at 2, eventually forcing overtime. The rest is history and not the good kind for the Kings.

The Islanders won the game. Kaliyev and Gavrikov played the next night at Madison Square Garden, but Gavrikov was on Injured Reserve just six days later and never seemed completely healthy the rest of the season. The Kings went on to lose an incredible 17 of their next 23 games and never showed the brilliance they displayed in the first 23 games of that season.

It seems crazy to suggest that a single team or player broke the 2023-24 Los Angeles Kings. But, the way that game and rest of the Kings season played out, the idea gets downgraded from crazy to sensible. The Kings not only failed to respond directly to Lee in that game, but they failed to respond to any sort of adversity until that season’s All-Star break.

Fast forward one year. On December 10th, 2024, the Los Angeles Kings, with their 16-8-3 record, will visit Anders Lee and the New York Islanders. Don’t ever accuse the NHL schedule makers of not having a sense of humor.

It would be a stretch to suggest that the Kings have been counting down to this game or have Lee’s number up in their locker room. However, its sensible to think that there is some awareness on the LA side regarding the significance this game has. It’s also sensible to think that the seeds of GM Rob Blake’s plan to make the Kings a tougher team to play against were planted directly after that game.

It all sets up for a very interesting game and road trip for LA. Outside of last season’s Anders Lee butterfly effect, December is a month that the Kings have historically struggled in. It remains to be seen if this version of the silver and black is truly different from past iterations. Still, for what would’ve otherwise been another game on the schedule, tomorrow’s puck drop against the Islanders is the first layer of what could be a season-defining stretch of games for the Kings.

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