Los Angeles Kings' Stellar Defense Will Bring The Stanley Cup Back To Franchise

When Slava Voynov was removed from the team, there was a certain amount of pessimism as to the the Los Angeles Kings‘ title chances. Those fears seemed to be realized when the team got off to an 0-3 start, but the Kings have reeled off five wins in a row and appear poised to return to the top of the mountain. While the offense has still been a work in progress, it’s the blueline that is bringing the Kings to the forefront.

Last season, when Voynov initially became unavailable, the Kings had to work on the fly to find the right combinations for their blueline. They settled on the duo of Jake Muzzin and Drew Doughty as their top pairing. Muzzin flourished with this role and became a household name on the back end. This season, the Muzzin-Doughty pairing has been broken up, but the results have yet to be negative. Youngster Brayden McNabb has been placed with Doughty on the top pairing this season, and even though the offensive production has yet to come, their possession statistics are through the roof. If their possession stats can remain high, the offensive output is sure to follow.

If the Doughty-McNabb pairing wasn’t impressive enough, the Kings have also struck gold with their No. 2 pairing, Muzzin and Alec Martinez. Again, although this pairing has yet to produce much offense, their possession statistics also suggest that the offense isn’t too far away. When this pairing is on the ice, their Corsi For percentage is above 60 percent for both players. Even more incredible is their CF60 rating, which rates in the 70 percentile while the two are on the ice together. If Muzzin can continue to perform at such a high level, he will find himself in the same Norris conversation as the aforementioned Doughty.

Christian Ehrhoff should provide some stability to the third pairing while the Kings wait for Matt Greene to return from injury. There’s no word yet on when Greene will be available as he was just placed on injured reserve Oct. 23, retroactive to Oct. 13. Jamie McBain can prove to be a nice depth defenseman, but the Kings may have to look outside their organization for another defender, if for nothing more than insurance. Health is always the wild card, but if the Kings’ top four defensemen can remain healthy, there’s absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t be Stanley Cup favorites.