Better luck next year: The Los Angeles Kings have some big questions to answer

They can not get through the Edmonton Oilers in the first round.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be officially eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention: The Los Angeles Kings.

Do the Los Angeles Kings simply have an Edmonton Oilers problem?

Or do they have a much more serious problem — a Los Angeles Kings problem?

That is the big question management has to answer this offseason as they try to pick up the pieces from a third consecutive first-round loss to the Oilers.

I was very bullish on the Kings coming into this season and really thought they had a chance to make a serious run in the Western Conference. Especially if they could get a breakout year from former No. 2 overall pick Quinton Byfield (and they sort of did get that).

But the season ended up being pretty underwhelming as they finished five points worse than the 2022-23 team, and again ran into an Oilers team that was just flat out better than them in the postseason.

On one hand, you could write it off as some bad matchup luck that they keep running into an Oilers team that is one of the best in the league and has two superstar talents in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the top of the lineup.

On the other hand, if you want to be a serious contender you have to beat teams like the Oilers, and simply writing it off as “bad matchup” ignores the very real flaws that exist on this Kings team.

And there are still a lot of them.

Let’s talk about it.