Two coaching changes this season in the NHL and not much has been seen from the action. In Chicago, the Blackhawks are 0-2-0, in Los Angeles, the Kings are inconsistent and have lost two straight after winning two in a row.
Saturday night, David Rittich made 21 saves to backstop the Calgary Flames to a 1-0 road win over the Kings.
“I get a shutout, but they didn’t have too much because our team played pretty good,” Rittich said. “I have to say thank you to the locker room because they played really good.”
Travis Hamonic scored early in the first period for the game’s only offense.
“I mean, I don’t score much, so it was nice. A bonus,” Hamonic said. “Glad to help the team out that way, but I thought defensively our group collectively was really good.”
The LA offense has seemingly taken the early season off. They have two or fewer goals in 11 of their games thus far this season.
The Kings are 5-10-1 and in danger of losing sight of the playoff positions in the Western Conference.
Calgary also made it difficult for LA to find shooting and passing in lanes especially in the second period when the Kings had four shots on goal.
“I think it’s always been a solid defensive team,” Kings head coach Willie Desjardins said. “I think that’s the way they have always won, so I think some of the top guys think a little bit more defensively. The guys on the other side, [Flames forward Johnny] Gaudreau, [Sean] Monahan, they are always thinking offense. I think our guys look a little bit more defensively. Saying that, I think we have to create some systems that are going to get guys more involved. We got to force ourselves to get up ice and play more aggressive and play more offensive.”
[WATCH: All Flames vs. Kings highlights]
Jack Campbell made 35 saves in the hard luck loss for the Kings.
“Obviously, we haven’t been creating a lot of offense. We’re getting some shots, but not the shots we want. We need to get that passion back, that hunger to get to the soft areas and keep making plays. We kind of got away from making those cycle plays to where we got momentum every shift. That goes a long way and that rolls into periods and then games. We got to pick it up here,” the Kings’ Alex Iafallosaid after the game.
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