It hasn’t taken long for the L.A. Kings to re-establish out of the holiday break that they are, as of right now, far and away the class of the Pacific Division.
They started up again on Boxing Day with an overtime win over the Arizona Coyotes. Then they continued by thoroughly beating the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and, on Thursday, the Calgary Flames.
All of those wins have occurred on the road, against division opponents. The Kings have outscored the competition 18-6 in the last four games.
Against the Flames, the Kings dominated for two periods and went on to a 4-1 win.
Maybe -- maybe? -- there were some nervous moments in the third period, as Calgary finally woke up and cut L.A.'s lead from three goals down to two.
But for the most part, the Kings were the better team and they busted this game wide open with a pair of goals in the second period.
Game over.
“It was the second period. You get down (three goals), you start trading chances ... You can’t spot that team 3 goals,” said Flames defenseman Mark Giordano, as per the club’s Twitter account.
The Kings, who did not make the playoffs last year, have now reached the 50-point mark and are a puck possession juggernaut with a 56.3 per cent Corsi For rating at five-on-five, as per stats.hockeyanalysis.com.
They are the only team in that division to reach 50 points. No other team in the Pacific has cracked the 40-point mark.
Meanwhile, the Arizona Coyotes defeated the Winnipeg Jets and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Oilers.
The Coyotes move to second in the Pacific with 39 points, while the Ducks move to fifth and only two points back of third-place San Jose.