1998-99 record: 32-45-5, 69 points, 5th Pacific Division
Coach: Andy Murray (first-year as Kings coach)
New faces: Murray, RW Zigmund Palffy, C Bryan Smolinski, G Marcel Cousineau, D Aki Berg, LW Bill Huard, G Mike O'Neill, C Jason Blake, Staples Center
Losses: Coach Larry Robinson, C Ray Ferraro, G Manny Legace, G Ryan Bach, C Olli Jokinen, D Doug Bodger, LW Josh Green, D Mathieu Biron, LW Matt Johnson, Great Western Forum
Strengths: Everything's new in Los Angeles this season, from the Staples Center to Murray to the lineup. The Kings will make their regular-season debut at the new arena on October 20 after a season-opening seven-game road trip. Murray has no NHL head coaching experience and has not worked in the NHL in five years. But he inherits a team that should have little trouble improving on last season's disappointing finish. D Rob Blake missed 20 games and GM Dave Taylor landed Palffy in a six-player swap with the New York Islanders. He's an elite sniper and should take some of the scoring load off LW Luc Robitaille, whose 39-goal effort was lost amid the Kings' dismal finish. The defense will be buoyed by the return of Berg, who spent 1998-99 in his native Finland. Murray is a special teams specialist, which is good since Los Angeles ranked near the bottom on the power play and in the middle of the pack in penalty-killing.
Weaknesses: Only the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens scored fewer goals than the Kings (189) last season. The presence of Palffy should go a long way toward improving that. Los Angeles was only 14-25-2 on the road last season, a 10-point dropoff from 1997-98. Leadership. Robinson lost touch with the team by the end of the season and it's up to players like Blake and Robitaille to make sure the Kings show more emotion on the ice and play with more urgency. While the Staples Center is sure to be an improvement over the Great Western Forum, it also forces Los Angeles to play its first seven games on the road. That leaves little margin for error for a team that is six years removed from its last playoff victory.
Murray says: "We're just hoping to keep the consistency in our game. We can't afford to have some of the lapses we had mentally. If we can avoid injury and produce like I think we can, we will be successful this season. Our effort has been there, but we haven't been as effective as we should have been. We haven't scored much on the power play, and that has to change. It really hurts us. We cannot be satisfied with just keeping games close."