Frozen Royalty

LOS ANGELES — One month of the 2008-09 National Hockey League season is in the books and the Los Angeles Kings have been pretty much what was expected in terms of wins and losses.

As of this writing, the Kings have a 3-6-1 record, good for seven points. They are ranked last in the Pacific Division, already eleven points out of first place, and in the Western Conference standings, the Kings are also dead last—both are right where they were last season.

Against the rest of the league, the Kings are ranked 28th in the thirty-team NHL, just two points ahead of the last place New York Islanders.

The Kings ended the 2007-08 season in 29th place, tied in points with last-place Tampa Bay.

In short, the Kings are right about where most people expected them to be, showing no significant improvement in the standings over the previous season so far. But if you think the Kings have not improved over last season, guess again.

Although consistency is a problem that continues to plague them, that is to be expected of the third-youngest team in the league. But there have been both tangible and intangible improvements over the Kings we all were used to seeing.

One area of improvement has been on the defensive end, with the team having allowed 31 goals in ten games. At the same point last season, they allowed 36, an average improvement of half-a-goal per game.

If that trend continues, the Kings could end the season improving their goals against by 41 goals, dropping them from 266 goals against last season to 225…

To read the full story, click on: Kings’ Improvements May Not Be Easy To See

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