Like my pops Mad Max had said, the chickens had come home to roost.

Was thinking about this line from the Wolf of Wall Street this morning. It was in Leonardo DiCaprio’s character’s monologue, after things came crashing down on him. I’m sure you’ve seen the movie, but for someone who played things fast and loose, when you have opportunities to do what you need to do, and you don’t do them, eventually, the chickens come home to roost……whatever that means.

I found parallels between that scene and the LA Kings, coming off of their worst performance and defeat in a long time. The worst the team has played under Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith, certainly. Considering the magnitude of the situation, there is not much explanation for a team that came out flat, without energy, in a poor showing to begin a seven-game homestand, against a team that was within reach in the playoff race.

Why I thought of the Wolf of Wall Street line, though, honestly doesn’t even have that much to do with last night’s game. The Kings were due for a loss like that in some ways. They happen to every team throughout the course of the season, when a team just doesn’t have it. The larger problem is, for me at least, less about last night’s game and more about why last night’s game had the magnitude that it did.

Since Smith took over, the Kings have played 14 games, with a record of 5-5-4. 13 of those 14 games, last night aside, the team was competitive. Breaking down those games, last night was the first defeat when the game was not tied in the third period. The Kings also have four wins in that span – Canucks, Rangers, Islanders (x2) – in games that were not tied in the third period.

That leaves, by my first-grade education, nine games that were tied at some point in the third period.

The Kings have a record of 1-4-4 in those nine games.

It’s those nine games that make last night’s loss even worse than it was at the surface.

If the Kings split those nine games, say 4-4-1, last night’s loss is disappointing, but it’s not nearly as important as it was when you go 1-8. I’ve actually thought about a loss like yesterday’s a number of times over the last few weeks, because games like that are bound happen. I’m actually a little surprised it took this long. However, when you go 1-8 in games that are tied in the third period, you can no longer afford a game like that. The margin for error became so thin because of how many opportunities were missed along the way. As such, it felt even worse because you knew that there would be a couple of games down the stretch that wouldn’t be competitive, in both directions. Some you win comfortably, some you lose comfortably. You had to account for a couple of games like that in any stretch and that’s why losing eight of nine games that were tied in the third period hurts that much more. Because the Kings put themselves in the position they were, a bad night was that much worse.

I don’t write that to excuse last night’s game because there aren’t any excuses. It was unacceptable at this point in the season, by any way you assess it. A win last night and the Kings held a playoff spot with nine games left, two points out of the first wild card, two points out of the third spot in the Pacific Division. That is what a win would have done. Instead, throughout the lineup, the Kings delivered, by their own assessment, one of the poorest showings of the season, certainly the worst since the coaching change. Just a tough one to explain, especially when you look at an opponent on the same travel schedule and the same amount of rest that came out and played almost an opposite game.

So, the chickens came home to roost. A string of narrow defeats finally caught up with the Kings, culminating in a blowout loss to begin a seven-game homestand. Now, there are nine games remaining in the regular season, with three days between yesterday’s game and Wednesday’s to reflect on it, think about it and improve upon it.

I thought Brian Dumoulin summed up pretty well where the group is at, coming off of yesterday’s loss and entering into this span of three days. Utah came into last night’s game like a playoff game and played as such. That was the team that played like it deserved to be in. The Kings clearly didn’t have that level of intensity in their game. Dumoulin is someone who has been in this situation before and understands the stakes. If the Kings play their way in, they’ll do so playing at that level. If not, they don’t deserve to be in the postseason.

“For me, it’s a reminder of how hard you have to work to win in this league. They were ready, they treated that game like it was a playoff game, they came at us, they gave us no room. They made plays, but they also kept it in deep and they didn’t give us anything easy. We have to do that to teams. I think this is the best thing for us. Going forward, it’s a nine-game season. It’s playoffs now. If we do get in, we’ll be thankful that we had these nine games to get playoff ready. In the past, being on the other side of it, I was in Pittsburgh, we were in a playoff spot, just hoping teams would lose and Florida ended up winning seven out of the last nine, took our spot and ended up going to the Stanley Cup Finals. You have to be playing your best hockey right now, playing playoff hockey. This is going to prove it. If we don’t play it then we don’t deserve to be in. It’s as fine as that.”

In terms of today’s skate, the Kings had a few areas of emphasis. the last 10-15 minutes of practice were all battle-driven situations. 1-on-1’s out of the corner, board battles, 2-on-2’s down low. Things like that with certain things in mind.

Dumoulin used words like “battle and compete” to talk about some of the drills the Kings ran. Forward Quinton Byfield used “battle and intensity”. Clear focus in trying to show some progress in those areas.

Before that, the Kings spent a lot of time working on the neutral zone, while looking to push the pace throughout the game, specifically when it comes to the forecheck. Lots to work on, naturally, with today’s skate focusing in on those areas, per Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith.

“Play faster. Forecheck. Continue to work on our neutral zone, which we don’t want to be sitting back as much, we want to be pushing the other team, just getting comfortable with that. Getting our mindset to where we’ve got to push here with nine games to go.”

On the nuts and bolts side, here’s how the Kings aligned today –

Panarin – Kopitar – Malott
Moore – Byfield – Laferriere
Wright – Laughton – Armia
Joseph – Turcotte – Ward

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci
Moverare

Kuemper/Forsberg

Forward Samuel Helenius is “dinged up” and is considered to be out day-to-day, per Smith. He did not skate today and is not a lock to be available for the games on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Smith said that there will for sure be some lineup changes come the St. Louis game on Wednesday, highlighting Alex Turcotte and Taylor Ward as players who could come into the lineup versus the Blues.

Jeff Malott filled Adrian Kempe’s spot on the top line today, skating with Anze Kopitar and Artemi Panarin. The rest of Kempe’s season probably goes this way, for now at least. He has not practiced since he got injured but has played in every game but one. In speaking with him today, the schedule has helped, meaning there have been lots of games, tightly compacted, so until now, he really hasn’t missed all that much. He’ll likely be good to go on Wednesday against St. Louis, but not sure we will see him between now and then.

“It’s a good thing that we play a lot, so it’s not too many days off where I don’t have to skate, now is the only break we have, practice today, day off, practice again,” Kempe said today. “It hasn’t really affected me that much, it’s really a lot better than it was a week ago or two weeks ago, so I’m happy because of that. It’s going to be important coming down the stretch here that I can feel as good as possible and get my game back to where it was before I got hurt.”

Looking ahead, the Kings have a day off tomorrow, a practice day on Tuesday and then return to game action on Wednesday versus St. Louis. That kicks off a stretch of nine games in 16 days to conclude the regular season, with just one stretch of multiple days off remaining on the calendar.