Kraken

January has traditionally been the harshest time of the year for the Kings, who haven’t had a winning record in that month the last three seasons. But winter grew dark and gloomy a little earlier than usual because December has hardly been a walk in the park.

With Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken, the Kings head into the NHL’s three-day Christmas break having lost six of their last seven. And things aren’t getting easier any time soon: when the team returns to the ice Saturday, it will play host to the Ducks, who lead the Pacific Division in wins, before closing out 2025 Monday on the road against the Colorado Avalanche, who lead the NHL in wins.

“It’s not going the way we all want to,” forward Kevin Fiala said. “But you know, that’s going to happen for everybody. So it’s us who have to do something about it. Who can pull us out of it? Nobody else.

“I’m not worried. Like, I’m sure we’re gonna get out of this. But it’s not acceptable right now.”

And if it doesn’t change right now, the rest of the season will be as cold as a winter frost for the Kings.

It’s not just that the team is losing, but how it’s losing that is most concerning. The Kings (15-12-9) are 31st in the 32-team NHL in scoring, 31st on the power play and have scored more than two goals just twice in 11 games this month. That’s negated a defense that is second in the league in goals allowed.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to make sense of things,” coach Jim Hiller said when asked to explain a slide that has dropped the Kings into the middle of the division standings. “We just feel like we haven’t had a good run of games where we felt like, win or lose, we really like how we’re playing.

“That’s something that we’ll keep driving towards. We just haven’t had it yet.”

Last season, Hiller’s Kings tied franchise records for wins and points in the regular season and had the best home mark in team history. This season, they’re 4-8-4 at Crypto.com Arena, the second-worst home record in the Western Conference. And that has general manager Ken Holland answering questions about Hiller’s future behind the bench.

“I expect him to be here the rest of the season,” said Holland last week, not exactly a full-throated vote of confidence.

Yet for all their struggles, December has just been a continuation of the things that have plagued the Kings all season.

“We all have high expectations for ourselves,” Hiller said. “We just haven’t hit our stride yet. That’s the part that we’re chasing. That’s what we have to focus on. We have to hit that stride.

“It’s a difficult time right now, for sure.”

On Tuesday, Hiller tried to shake things up by mixing up his lines, most significantly pairing Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko with center Alex Turcotte. And while Fiala and Kuzmenko responded with goals, they didn’t come until the Kraken had taken a 3-0 lead.

The first goal came from Jordan Eberle, who was left alone in front of the Kings’ net, giving him plenty of space to settle a pass from Matty Beniers before lifting the puck around goaltender Pheonix Copley and under the crossbar for his 13th goal of the season. It was the fourth power-play goal the Kings had given up in the last two nights and the sixth in four games.

The Kraken doubled their lead on a quirky goal less than eight minutes later, with Copley misjudging a deflected shot from Seattle’s Frederick Gaudreau, allowing the puck to knuckle off his glove then trickle through his legs for the goal.

Ben Meyers extended Seattle’s lead to 3-0 with less than four minutes left in the second before the Kings finally got on the board with an unassisted goal from Fiala, his 13th of the season, 11 seconds later.

Kings coach Jim Hiller watches from the bench during the second period of a 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.

(Luke Hales / Getty Images)

Now the Kings will have three days to think about that, although Fiala said he’d gotten over the game by the time he finished showering.

“If you win five in a row or lose five in a row or whatever, it’s forgotten. It’s in the past,” he said. “I think we take the good things with us and the bad things we hopefully analyze and get better at.”

For Hiller, the break couldn’t come at a better time. Or a worse time since the team’s current seven-game slump is its deepest since the winter of 2023-24. That one cost coach Todd McLellan his job.

“I hope the players are able to relax and refresh themselves,” Hiller said. “It’s been from September till now, with the schedule and how busy it is. And 85% of our games, we’ve been playing within one goal.

“It’s taxing physically and mentally. So I’m sure those guys need a break.”

Jordan Eberle scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period and added an empty-netter in the final minute, and the Seattle Kraken beat the Ducks 3-1 on Monday night.

Frederick Gaudreau also scored and Kaapo Kakko had two assists for the Kraken. Philipp Grubauer stopped 39 shots.

Mikael Granlund scored for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks and Lukas Dostal had 18 saves.

Matty Beniers set up the go-ahead goal when he slid the puck past defender Radko Gudas and onto the stick of a wide-open Eberle, who snapped a shot from the left circle into the upper-right corner of the net for a 2-1 Kraken lead with 9:56 left.

Eberle then sealed the win with an empty-netter with 36 seconds remaining.

Grubauer had 16 saves in the second period and 15 in the third.

Seattle took a 1-0 lead 4:49 into the second when Gaudreau gathered the rebound of Shane Wright’s shot and flipped the puck into a near-open net for a power-play goal.

The Ducks tied it with 4:20 left in the second when Granlund battled Vince Dunn for position in the slot and redirected Jacob Trouba’s shot from above the right circle past Grubauer for his fourth goal in four games.

Granlund, who has missed 18 games because of injuries, has seven goals and four assists in his last 13 games.

The Ducks played without leading scorer Leo Carlsson, who missed his first game of the season because of a lower-body injury. Seattle played without top defenseman Brandon Montour, who underwent hand surgery Monday and will be out for four weeks. Montour was injured in last week’s fight against Colorado.

Linesman Ryan Gibbons departed with 53 seconds left in the first after tripping in front of the Seattle bench and hitting the back of his head on the ice. He did not return.

Up next for the Ducks: vs. Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.