24: The Los Angeles Kings have been outshot in just 24 of their 74 games this season.
Last night, the Kings extended their winning streak by taking down the Pittsburgh Penguins, in Pittsburgh. Though they earned the victory, the league’s best possession team was outpossessed, as the Penguins outshot LA 37-32. That’s only the 24th time this year that it’s happened. The other 50 times, the Kings have outshot their opponent. (Interestingly, not one Kings game this year has seen the two teams get the same number of shots on goal.)
Which goalies have been in net for these 24 games? It’s a nearly even split! Ben Scrivens was in goal for nine of those games, Martin Jones was in goal for eight such games, and Jonathan Quick has only started seven games where the Kings were outshot. Confidence? Luck? More likely, it’s because the Kings were outshot 13 times while Quick was injured. That’s why the Scrivens/Jones run of goaltending was so important.
Also, after being outshot four times in January and three times in an abbreviated February, the Kings have only lost the shot battle twice in March. When the Kings get good goaltending and win the shot battle consistently, they’re tough to beat. That’s how you get two five-game winning streaks in the same month.