Should the Kings dump their 1-3-1 neutral-zone trap?

EL SEGUNDO — The Kings’ 1-3-1 trap had drawn criticisms from opposing players, like Vancouver’s Nikita Zadorov, who said it was the Kings’ goal to not play hockey, and Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog, who once implored the Kings to “get up and hunt,” among other more profane commands.

Those comments were considered encouraging signs for the Kings – limiting, stifling and consternating the opposition would be the ideal progression of a neutral-zone trap that attempts to dictate exactly what the other team does with the puck – but lately, it’s been the Kings’ own players expressing frustration with the system.

At exit interviews last week, even some players’ defenses of the system called it “boring,” according to decorated 1-3-1 veteran Anže Kopitar, and acknowledged that the Kings “got into it a little too much,” per leading goal-scorer Trevor Moore.

This year’s leading point-producer and the Kings’ top sniper across the past three seasons, Adrian Kempe, said a 1-2-2 setup, which the Kings used on a limited basis, often when trailing, was “more fun” and would give the Kings’ scorers more opportunities to not only create turnovers but convert them into scoring chances.

Kevin Fiala, who joined Kempe and Kopitar among the Kings with more than 70 points this season, echoed the sentiment of several visiting players throughout the year – the consensus was that there were narrow but clearly identified areas to dump and chip pucks that could challenge the Kings even absent the more explosive skaters that shredded the Kings’ neutral zone at times – in assessing the system.

“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,” Fiala said. “So, I feel like, obviously, it would be fun to try something else.”

While the 1-3-1 neutral-zone trap is roughly a century old and employed by various teams today situationally – it almost has to be context-dependent as it’s a system employed primarily against set breakouts – the Kings have leaned heavily on the stuffy configuration.

Early in the season, the system was flourishing and the offense was flowing, with former coach Todd McLellan adding layers and wrinkles that impressed contemporaries from rookie Greg Cronin to Stanley Cup winner Bruce Cassidy.

Yet with dwindling practice time, the intensifying sense that the Kings had to play the “perfect game” to win (per Kopitar) and their fortunes shriveling, McLellan went from praised by his peers to fired by his bosses, who had handcuffed the team’s ability to make on-ice personnel changes with an overbold offseason.

Jim Hiller was promoted from power-play specialist to head coach, and he had some experience with a somewhat similar trap in New York as an Islanders assistant under Barry Trotz. They frequently incorporated 1-1-3 with similar concepts that also used a relatively passive initial level of pressure and relied on miscues or misplacements between the blue lines to quell attacks and create counters.

Hiller might or might not be the coach next season, and his level of conformity with a conservative, defense-first, check-for-our-chances system might be at or near the center of the coaching decision. While General Manager Rob Blake said a “deep discussion” was needed about the 1-3-1, he also said that the Kings were “talking a little bit about systemic changes” and that they didn’t want to stray much from an approach that made them the third-stingiest defense in the NHL last year, expressing reservation toward “a drastic change.”

“We’ll meet with (Hiller) and just go over exact changes that he would feel would go into place before we get a decision,” Blake said.

The New Jersey Devils trapped their way to three Stanley Cup championships between 1995 and 2003, but that was before the 2004-05 lockout ushered in two-line passes, limited goalies’ handling of the puck and engendered increases in speed, skill and technique across every position. Guy Boucher implemented the 1-3-1 specifically in Tampa Bay, taking the Lightning to the 2011 Eastern Conference finals, despite some mockery of his system by opponents.

Yet the Kings have been stranded on first base, at best, during Blake’s tenure as GM, when the team has utilized the 1-3-1 during five of its seven campaigns. They ceded 44 fewer goals this year – largely on the strength of a vastly improved penalty kill statistically and two new additions in net – but scored 20 fewer. That decline was despite a start that saw them top the league in goals per game as late as Dec. 8, only to recede to the bottom quarter of the league the rest of the way.

Despite the coaching change, offensive circumscription and inconsistent goaltenders that, despite stronger overall numbers, faltered in most of the biggest moments, Blake and Kings president Luc Robitaille touted the season as a success in a way that would have likely been revolting to their predecessor Dean Lombardi.

The Kings have averred that they won’t be changing team presidents or GMs. Their salary cap situation is such that re-signing their own players will be a challenge, especially after their stated decision not to buy out pricey stud-to-dud convert Pierre-Luc Dubois (who said the 1-3-1 was “definitely unconventional for what I’ve done my whole life”). It remains to be seen if an upgrade in goal is possible and also if Hiller, who had no prior professional head coaching experience, will remain behind the bench.

What they can change at no cost, however, is a system that hasn’t gotten them out of Round 1 since it was implemented in 2019.