EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Make no mistake, the Los Angeles Kings had a disappointing season. It started strong, and with hopes of a playoff run, and ended again in the first round at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers.
But it wasn’t a disastrous season. It could have turned that way if Jim Hiller hadn’t helped turn things around, after a horrendous January left the Kings focused on securing a wild-card berth instead of challenging for the Pacific Division title. Hiller’s mandate was to get the Kings into the postseason. And he did that, which put him in the running to keep the job. And that’s what happened, as the Kings removed their interim-coach tag from Hiller on Wednesday.
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General manager Rob Blake formally introduced Hiller as the franchise’s 30th head coach Thursday and said Hiller will put more of his own stamp on the Kings than he had a chance to do during his three-month interim stint, which largely was about stabilizing a team that had been thrown into disarray.
Whether Blake and team management were reluctant to chase after other available candidates, or were set on keeping Hiller from the moment the Oilers eliminated the Kings, what’s done is done, and a deeply appreciative Hiller is now leading the Kings from behind the bench, some 35 years after they drafted him. “To have that long and winding path to end back up here as my first head coaching job with the Kings is something I don’t take lightly,” he said.
Now, what about that 1-3-1 system introduced by former coach Todd McLellan? Is it a thing of the past? Is it here to stay?
The answer wasn’t clearly laid out.
“I’m not going to get into any details right now,” said Hiller, who has a three-year contract with an option for a fourth. “Let’s just put it this way. We’ve started the process of looking at everything about our game. We are a top defensive team in the National Hockey League. Have been for some years now. The identity of the L.A. Kings is a checking team that’s difficult to play against. We feel we have to find some areas where we can create more offense. But not at the expense of what our identity is and what we’ve taken some time to create.
“So, how do you do that? There’s different ways to do that. We’re going to explore every one of those and try to maximize the offense without taking away what is our greatest strength and our identity is, the defense. That’s a process. There’s deep discussions. A lot of times you can do this and then there’s unintended consequences here. Those discussions have to be thought about. You got to get your staff together and work with Rob and we’ll come to some conclusions by the time training camp rolls around.”
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The answer to retaining some or all elements of the passive (and some would say restrictive) 1-3-1 neutral-zone trap, or abandoning it, conceivably will be laid out later. But it is open for discussion. Players, from team leaders Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty to top offensive talents Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala, have hinted — even Kopitar used the word “boring” — at it being just as frustrating to play within as it is frustrating for opponents when executed at peak effectiveness.
Consider that Fiala, who’s managed to perform at nearly a point-per-game clip over his two L.A. seasons despite playing with a host of other forwards, agreed with Kempe’s hope of shifting into more a 1-2-2, with an increased emphasis on the forecheck. He also gave a breakdown into the 1-3-1’s strengths and limitations.
“In my opinion, the 1-3-1, it’s very effective when they try to go through you,” Fiala said this month. “There’s turnovers happening and we can go the other way, but if (teams are) going to rim it every time or chip it every time, that means one guy — we have to sprint back, we have to get the puck out. When there’s guys coming at us with structure and they rim it from the right side and two guys are coming with full heat on the left side against our standing still right winger, it’s not very easy to break it out, you know? So, I feel like it would be fun to try something else.”
The interesting thing is, the Kings were among the NHL’s highest-scoring teams when they got off to a 16-4-3 start. But then the depth scoring began to dry up and the performance of some players tailed off, or never took off while others flourished. Opponents began to adapt and solve the 1-3-1. Holes popped up as the Kings struggled at the midpoint of the season, and Hiller spent the second half papering over them while re-instilling confidence in the group.
By season’s end, the Kings were tied for 16th in goals with Arizona. And then they managed to score 13 against Edmonton in the five games while allowing 22. How much of that is system-related, roster-related, performance-related, or all of those, can be chopped up and debated.
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It might not be that comforting, for fans seeking a more dynamic Kings team, to hear Hiller talk of his greatest coaching influence: defensive wizard Jacques Lemaire, the guru of the stifling trap. But Hiller does have a forward’s mindset, from his background as a player and from coaching that side of the game during his assistant stops across the NHL.
Blake said he wasn’t just won over by Hiller getting the team back on track and steering it into the playoffs.
“His presence in front of the group is very important to us,” Blake said. “The way he can command the room and drive home the point, the point that we make together, the direction that we want to go together, (I’m) confident he can drive that home.”
Blake also added that, in talking with players during exit meetings, there was a sense that Hiller was operating in concert with him. “In their aspect, they really felt he was part of the group,” he said. “And that was important for me to hear.”
While there were no concrete answers revealed about the 1-3-1, who will play for the Kings is just as important as how they will play. There will be some adjustments made to the roster, but most of their top players are locked in for 2024-25.
And Hiller, with whatever changes he may have in store, must make it work with his players.
“I believe it is a collaboration,” he said. “It really is. The athletes today, they have a lot of information. The game is played at such a high level that there’s so many things now that they’re required to know and understand, and so I think you have to communicate those. There has to be a reason why and then you have to hold them accountable to those reasons.
“I think once everybody can agree what that looks like, that’s one thing. And then players have to go out and do it. They’ve got the hard job. They’ve got to go out and execute. … Our job is within that to make sure and hold them accountable. And if they don’t think that we have their best interests at heart as players or as a team in general, then it’s not going to work. So that’s why I think the collaboration is required.”
Perhaps the one thing Blake was most forceful about Thursday was his questioning of his team’s willingness to battle in the toughest areas of the ice. It was a shot at the Kings’ level of “compete,” an often-used hockey term.
“There’s a certain desire to win that needs to be raised within our team here,” Blake said. “And what that is, is getting a little uncomfortable. We talk about getting on top of the goalie. One big thing to try to create more offense, get on top of the goalie, get on the (blue) paint. You can get to the hash marks, right? That’s five feet from the net. You can probably get there pretty safe. Not get cross-checked, not get slashed, right? You want to go two or three more feet? There’s a desire to get there. That’s going to hurt. You’re going to get hit. You’re going to get cross-checked. But that’s how you get that job done.”
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Blake continued with that theme, stating how the Kings need to hate to lose as much as they want to win. It’s a theme that figures to be hammered throughout the summer and fall. “This hasn’t been comfortable, the last three weeks, at all,” he said. “Way, way different than the last two years. I know what needs to be done in there. Jim knows what needs to be done in there. We have to start that message right now.”
At the center of that is Pierre-Luc Dubois, the embattled forward who produced only 16 goals and 40 points in his first Kings season. Blake previously stated that the Kings will not buy out Dubois, and trading him one year into an eight-year deal may be next to impossible. He’ll be paid $11.25 million next season, $3.25 million of it as an up-front bonus.
“I don’t think PL was happy with his season,” Hiller said. “I think he’s got more. That will be my job, to connect with him through the summer. I won’t have a chance to talk to him until after the World Championships right away — playing very well, I understand. When he gets back, we’ll have a conversation.
“I’ve already got into some of the video watching him play. When you get this kind of time, you can dig in a little bit deeper. I see some statistics we’ve gathered. He’s a player that, when he’s entering the offensive zone with the puck, he’s our most efficient player at creating offense. But digging into it deeper, he didn’t have enough opportunities to enter the zone with the puck. So, why is that? We’ve got to get him more opportunities to enter that blue line with the puck.
“How do we do that? How does he do that? That’s a process that we’ll work through this summer. Through video. Through talking. I’m sure he’ll translate some of that on the ice. But what I do know is, he’s a really good player. And he wants to be a really good player. We’ll get a chance to work together, and he’ll come back and he’ll be a good player next year again. I know that.”
(Photo of Jim Hiller: Harry How / Getty Images)
Eric Stephens is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in Southern California. Eric has been writing and talking about sports for newspapers and media outlets for more than 30 years. He has previously covered the NHL for The Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. He is also an occasional contributor on NHL Network. Follow Eric on Twitter @icemancometh
