When you think of the top penalty killers for the Los Angeles Kings over the past few years certain names always roll off the tongue instinctually. Willie Mitchell, Jarret Stoll, Matt Greene, Rob Scuderi, & Drew Doughty are probably your go-to answers. Everyone knew that the PK would dip after the departure of Willie Mitchell & it took much of the season to get it close to what it had been in the past. Here’s a look a the Kings penalty kill over the past two regular season.

Season Penalty Kill Minutes PP Goals against CF% Sv% Penalty Kill% 2014-15 398.26 41 12.6 0.854 80.9 2013-14 484.57 49 10.6 0.878 83.1

The team fell into the bottom half of the NHL’s penalty kill standings (16th) while simultaneously really improving team discipline. Go figure.

It didn’t always feel like it but you can see that the Kings spent a whole lot less time undermanned. The Kings were shorthanded 60 more times in 2013-14 then they were last season.

However, less penalty kill time did not equate to better penalty kill time.

For most of the season, the team could not rely on the penalty killers to consistently keep the puck out of the net. Gone were the dreaded Bob Miller jinx’s of “The Kings have killed such & such straight penalties.”

He used to say that all the time — now…not so much.

Teams were getting more shots towards goal & the goalies were stopping less of them.

Most people called this the Willie Mitchell effect. Losing a penalty killer like Mitchell was bound to have an impact on the team. It went beyond the team stats, it also severely altered how Darryl Sutter distributed his ice time.

The following shows the top Kings penalty killers over the past two seasons based on how often they were used in shorthanded situations. Listed are:

The percentage of the team’s ice time the player played while shorthanded (only includes the games they actually played)

The percentage of the time the player was on the ice for a goal scored against while shorthanded

The difference between those two numbers. Seemed like a good way to measure how effective a player was at penalty killing. For example, Matt Greene played 40.29% of the Kings penalty killing time but was on the ice for 60% of the goals scored against while shorthanded. That’s a pretty noticeable difference, giving credence to the cliche that your best penalty killers, really do need to be your best penalty killers & that goes beyond the goalie.

Games played

All statistics courtesy of Puckalytics

2014-15 % of TOI % of GA Diff Games 2013-14 % of TOI % of GA Diff Games Drew Doughty 53.64 55.56 -1.92 82 Willie Mitchell 48.1 52.27 -4.17 76 Robyn Regehr 52.52 41.67 10.85 67 Robyn Regehr 46.3 47.92 -1.62 79 Slava Voynov 42.38 0 42.38 6 Matt Greene 44.3 58.82 -14.52 38 Matt Greene 40.29 60 -19.71 82 Drew Doughty 42.21 35.42 6.79 78 Andrej Sekera* 38.52 39.13 -0.61 73 Jarret Stoll 34.7 25 9.7 78 Anze Kopitar 33.9 39.02 -5.12 79 Slava Voynov 34.33 22.45 11.88 82 Alec Martinez 33.39 16.22 17.18 56 Anze Kopitar 33.28 48.98 -15.7 82 Jarret Stoll 30.33 50 -19.67 73 Trevor Lewis 32.73 36.96 -4.23 73 Trevor Lewis 39.96 30 9.96 73 Mike Richards 26.06 22.45 3.61 82 Jeff Carter 28.38 28.89 -0.51 82 Jeff Carter 24.76 20 4.76 72 Dustin Brown 26.59 17.78 8.81 82 Dwight King 21.54 21.74 -0.2 77 Tyler Toffoli 20.41 5.13 15.28 76 Jake Muzzin 19.08 21.43 -2.35 76 Dwight King 17.88 20 -2.12 81

*Sekera’s stats also include his time with Carolina

The most noticeable effect of Mitchell’s departure to Florida is that the team went from a more equitable distribution on the blue line to two defensemen carrying a disproportionate amount of the penalty killing time. In 2013-14, Sutter relied the trio of Willie Mitchell, Robyn Regehr, & Drew Doughty relatively equally. Also, even though Matt Greene only played 38 games that season, you can see that the team would rely on two pairs of defensemen to get the job done when he was healthy.

Once Mitchell left, the Kings relied more & more on going with just two defensmen, Doughty & Regehr, the majority of the time. Even though it’s only a small sample size, you can see that the plan was to give Slava Voynov more responsibilities on the penalty kill, but that plan had to be scrapped for obvious reasons.

You can also see that Sutter couldn’t rely so much on a rotation of three defensemen given how poorly Matt Greene was performing on the kill. He was on the ice for 40% of the team’s penalty kill time, but 60% of the goals. That’s two straight seasons where you could argue that he was becoming a liability shorthanded.

Other observations:

It really was a poor season for Jarret Stoll & you can see that Jeff Carter was already eating into Stoll’s minutes on the kill.

was already eating into Stoll’s minutes on the kill. Looking for a silver lining in Dustin Brown’s season? Well, he became one of the team’s most underrated penalty killers. You don’t normally pay $5.875 million for the John Madden’s of the world but he was one of the few Kings who improved their shorthanded play from the previous season.

season? Well, he became one of the team’s most underrated penalty killers. You don’t normally pay $5.875 million for the of the world but he was one of the few Kings who improved their shorthanded play from the previous season. Then, there’s Tyler Toffoli, the league leader in shorthanded goals despite not seeing that much penalty kill time. Toffoli scored five shorties, played 20% of the team’s PK time & was only on the ice for 5% of the goals scored against the team. Was this a fluke or is it the continued progression of a player who may soon be among the elite in the league? Either way, expect more of Toffoli on the PK next season.

There will be some significant changes to the Kings penalty kill next year. The team could lose all of the following key contributors from the last couple of seasons: Regehr, Sekera, Voynov, Stoll & Mike Richards. That’s coming off losing Willie Mitchell & Rob Scuderi the previous couple of seasons.

The team should be okay with regards to the forwards but there is a real hole left on defense by the loss of Robyn Regehr, who along with Doughty, was called upon to be the Kings best defensive player on the kill & the stats would argue that he did just that. The most obvious replacement would be Andrej Sekera who would be primed to join Doughty as the top pair on the PK. But signing him is going to be a real challenge.

What if they can’t? Who gets paired with Doughty?

Certainly not Matt Greene who’s effectiveness on the kill is clearly waning & Jake Muzzin simply does not kill penalties in Sutter’s eyes.

How about Alec Martinez?

Darryl Sutter has made that leap of faith before as Martinez has previously gone from a regular healthy scratch to playoff hero in one season. Also, last season he saw his ice time dramatically increase following the arrest of Slava Voynov & Martinez was subsequently forced to become a Top-4 defenseman. He struggled with the adjustment early on but then seemed to get more comfortable with the added responsibilities before seeing his season derailed to injuries.

In order for the Kings to reclaim their rightful spot in the playoffs, the penalty kill needs to regain it’s Top 10 form & new players are going to be relied upon to do so.

The keys to that success may end up being Alec Martinez & Tyler Toffoli.

Can they sustain their effectiveness last year with increased responsibilities?

Are you ready for Martinez to be on the top pair for every penalty kill? Maybe…but it does kind of feel unlikely.

Now…Kopitar & Toffoli on the kill — that sounds very, very appealing. But Martinez?

There’s a real hesitancy to embrace giving him that much importance on special teams.

So much of this comes down to whether Sekera is willing to take a discount to stay with the Kings…if so he could be the real key to the Kings successfully reclaiming their spot as top penalty killing team. If not…