An all too familiar frustrating feeling was back for Kings fans after a 2-1 overtime loss against the Islanders last night.
Jordan Nolan debuted in his first NHL game and was nothing short of impressive, even when the rest of the team wasn’t connecting. He showed a desire to win that other team members seem to be lacking lately.
But I don’t think the Kings’ issues are from a lack of passion, but instead from poor team chemistry and an inability to mesh well together. You can clearly see that when looking at statistics of past and current players on the Los Angeles roster.
As of right now, Wayne Simmonds and Anze Kopitar are tied in goals scored this season at 17 a piece. That’s no bash to either player, in fact, Simmonds is my favorite in the league and showed a promising future when he played in Los Angeles. But the current Flyers right winger already has three more goals than he did by the end of the last season. And Mike Richards, who the Kings acquired in return, has only earned 27 points on the west coast compared to the 66 he had in 2010-2011.
This just proves that no matter how good you are as an athlete, you can’t score unless you have teammates around you who fit with your style of play. Now that Dean Lombardi has seen Nolan step up and play well at the NHL level, hopefully he continues to look to Manchester to make changes to current lineups.
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