EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The sight of PL Dubois going through another game without a noticeable impact must eat away at Los Angeles Kings general manager Rob Blake and team president Luc Robitaille, especially with so much more on the line now.
It’s got to. If it isn’t, then there is a colossal problem that’s larger than their major acquisition last summer.
The one who’s called “PL” by his preference and those around him is an XL issue for the Kings. It has been that way in his huge disappointment of a season and it is painfully so when the playoffs are one of the chief reasons why he was he was brought to L.A. for three roster players, two of whom might have made the gap between them and the Edmonton Oilers not as wide now.
The reason the Kings are down 2-1 in the first-round series after a 6-1 thrashing — the second such one-sided affair — isn’t all on Dubois. Their special teams are a disaster, they’ve got no answer for Zach Hyman down low, they’re struggling to rein in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and they may need to look at a change in net after Cam Talbot was blitzed for the second time in three games.
But where they should have a decisive advantage over the Oilers is on the third line. Dubois is centering with Kevin Fiala on his wing and a rotating cast on the opposite side. The 25-year-old pivot has a massive eight-year, $68 million contract to give the Kings a high-quality forward for the long haul and enviable depth in the middle for the immediate term.
PL Dubois has an opportunity to show his worth in the playoffs. So far, he hasn’t done that. (Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)
In three games so far, Dubois has an inconsequential Game 1 goal scored late in a 7-4 dusting by Edmonton. And Fiala, their $55-million bauble bought from Minnesota two summers ago, isn’t feasting beside him. He had a go-ahead goal in Game 2 but has been mostly quiet otherwise.
That is hardly enough when they’ve got a matchup of Ryan McLeod and Corey Perry while their top two lines are having their hands full with McDavid and Draisaitl. Anže Kopitar and Phillip Danault have been about as successful as Carl Denham was keeping King Kong in chains on Broadway. But those two should free up Dubois to do damage against a lesser McLeod and a 38-year-old not-so-vintage Perry.
Should is the word that hasn’t been operative in this case.
“Our line and Phil’s line, we have to play those guys and we have to play them well,” said Adrian Kempe, who has taken one-off shifts with Dubois and Fiala apart from his usual top-line duty. “Obviously can’t let them score three, four goals because then it’s probably going to be a tough night for us. That comes firsthand. We have to think about being on the right side of those guys.
“But obviously for PL and Kevin and those guys, I think they’re really talented players. … They can make a huge impact.”
In Game 3, Fiala played more than any Kings forward and had three shots on goal in his 18:44 of ice time. Dubois did not put one of his two attempts on net in 14:08. Neither plays on the penalty kill, but Fiala is a featured part of their first unit on the power play and Dubois gets some of what’s left on an advantage when coach Jim Hiller puts out the second unit. Neither has an assist in the series.
It didn’t look any better for Dubois when Carl Grundstrom had two shots in his 4:52 of playing time. And the underlying metrics make him look worse. Per Natural Stat Trick, Dubois has a team-low CF% of 42.86 over the first three games and is in the red for scoring chances (27-14) and high-danger chances (14-5) during five-on-five play. That’s where the bulk of his ice time is at.
“They’ve had some different looks at different times,” Hiller said Saturday. “I know PL got the one up in Edmonton. Kevin got us up 4-3 and then they came back. We haven’t had a lot of guys do a lot of scoring I guess you would say. Kempe has scored relatively consistently. As (for) those players who are higher-profile offensive players, for sure they need to get more done. But they can’t do it at the risk of letting the puck go the other way and giving Edmonton a chance to put one in the back of our net.
“It’s a tough balance. It’s the playoffs. You have to play a two-way game and when you get your opportunities, you have to score. Would we like more from them so far? Yeah. But we’re three games in. There’s lots left.”
At least Fiala has a strong regular season that included a big second half to fall back on. The winger finished second behind Kempe on a balanced Kings club with 29 goals and 73 points. If anything, the Swiss forward’s struggles have been more apparent on a power play that’s 0-for-10 in the series after he led Los Angeles with 11 man-advantage goals.
Dubois hasn’t been good in L.A. He didn’t miss a game but wasn’t a factor in many of them, finishing with 16 goals and 40 points — totals well off his usual 82-game average. Before he asked for a trade from Winnipeg, Dubois had consecutive seasons of 28 goals and 60 points and 27 goals and 63 points. The talent is in there but like in Winnipeg and Columbus beforehand, L.A. hasn’t gotten the most out of him after Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari were sent to the Jets.
I spoke with Dubois before Game 3 about finding chemistry with Fiala and how they can exploit what should be a theoretical advantage. It’s a topic Hiller got into between Games 1 and 2 in Edmonton. “That should be the strength when you look at it, right?” he said. “If that line is together, that line has to score.”
Kempe isn’t the only one who rotated in with them. Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere have traded off, with Byfield getting quite a few of the extra shifts over the first three games. But it’s supposed to be Dubois or Fiala who drives the third grouping.
“All three of us kind of play different styles so I think if we can all get on the same page of how we should play then we become a dangerous line,” Dubois said. “You think of good lines around the league, it’s not always the same player times three. It’s the same style of play times three. One guy can shoot more, maybe one guy passes more. But they see the game the same way. They begin the same way and then they just play fast. They play without thinking. I think if we can get to that point, we can be a really good line.
“We’ve had some shifts where it feels good and then we’ve had some shifts where I think we can be more on the same page. I think if we can get there, we can be really dangerous.”
To even the series with a Game 4 win, the Kings must get their power play going and not allow Edmonton to gorge on their penalty kill as it has with three goals in each of its two blowout victories. Having their best players deliver as they did in Game 2 will go a long way toward pushing the Oilers like they did in 2022 and 2023. Working with a lead and having a strong forecheck in the offensive zone increases the chances of forcing turnovers. At times, McDavid and company have diced up their normally stingy 1-3-1 system.
The big change Hiller will weigh is sticking with Talbot or turning to David Rittich. Rittich hasn’t played since April 13 when he stopped 28 shots in a 3-1 win over Anaheim. But the 31-year-old backup has had a strong season with the Kings after starting in the minors as their No. 3 goalie. He had a 13-6-3/2.15/.921 line in 22 starts and had three shutouts.
One of those zeroes was tossed against the Oilers on Feb. 10 in Hiller’s debut after he was promoted to interim coach following the firing of Todd McLellan. Talbot has given up 16 goals in the three games and the Kings being down in the series isn’t all his doing. But it could be time to summon Rittich and see if he can deliver some Big Save Dave magic.
“There’s always consideration,” Hiller said. “There’s consideration every game. We go through everything. David did play good in that game. We know that. But we knew that going into the series. It’s the same thing. We consider everything every night.”
The Kings need to find an edge wherever possible. Dubois was supposed to provide that. He’s been playing with Fiala and hasn’t been saddled with low-scoring grinders. It says something when his signature moment came in the season’s third game when he scored in his return to Winnipeg.
The playoffs are where he could begin to win back those who hoped he could make a difference. The third line can swing a matchup in their direction. That’s been the idea from when they started putting lineups together in October.
“We have to be,” Dubois said. “It can’t be two shifts on, two shifts off. We have to find that consistency. Especially in these playoffs. It’s about building momentum. It’s about feeling good shift after shift. About setting your next line up with an advantage. I think we have to find that balance that we can all agree on. Once we do that, we can be a really hard line to play against.”
Time’s ticking. More than ever now, the Kings need him to be who they thought he could be. Foremost among them are Blake and Robitaille.
(Top photo: Curtis Comeau / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
