Change in structure causing problems for Kings

Things aren’t going to script in Hollywood, but sometimes that happens with a new screenplay.

The Los Angeles Kings are in a year of transition. With new head coach Peter Laviolette, the team is hoping to be a little more competitive in a fairly wide-open Pacific Division, rather than barely sneaking into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

However, through the first few weeks of the 2026-27 season, Los Angeles has had some notable signs of weakness. It has led to the club losing their first four games, despite picking up a couple of loser points along the way.

On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Steve Peters joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to explain why the new structure for the Kings is leading to some early-season woes.

Steve Peters: Their goals-against is a team that defended really well last season. Darcy Kuemper was solid. They were eighth last year in goals against. This year? They’re 29th. Shots against from 11th to 24th. That’s a huge problem. This isn’t a team that scored a lot last year under Hiller – 25th in the league- and now they’re 26th, but they are supposed to be better and create more offense right now under Laviolette. They’re supposed to defend better through the neutral zone, and that’s one of the problems. You make a big coaching change with structure changes. A team is stifling through the neutral zone, playing a 1-3-1…Big difference. They’re going to a 1-2-2, something they haven’t played in years, and it changes your structure.

Hopefully, it’s going to create more offense for this team, and hopefully they can break out. The biggest concern I have for this team is their back end. They got four defensemen that are 33 years or older, and we know how quick this league is, how fast this league is, how you need to move the puck up the ice quickly. I am concerned about the aging defense in L.A. But the bright spot, Fiala’s out. That’s not a bright spot, and Zuccarello is out. But it’ll be a bright spot when they have people coming back…Fiala and Mats Zuccarello will really add to this offense.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…