There is one fundamental flaw, and it is purely the roster make up. The Kings have nobody other than Iafallo that can win board battles. Once the puck is dumped in, the drop defender is the first one to the puck and he unless he gets to the puck cleanly and quickly, or is set up by the goalie, his responsibility to chip the puck up to the halfwall where the winger either has time to move it to the middle for a breakout or if he doesn't have the time is supposed to absorb the pinch and chip it out of the zone.
That's the failure here. Nobody on the wing is strong enough along the wall to properly set up for the counterpinch and pucks keep getting turned over between the top of the circles and the blueline. Minny scored twice on that exact scenario.
Iafallo is good at tying defenders up, but not one other winger on this squad has the ability to out battle the opposition. You see turnover after turnover in this area all directly related to the lack of size and grit on the boards.
Brown has always sucked along the wall, now he rarely even bothers to engage. Grundstrom lacks that element as well - the rest of the wingers are all guys who prefer to leave the zone on counterattacks.
And ain't nobody coming up from Ontario to help. They haven't drafted one winger with likely NHL pedigree since Pearson who is a board battler. The days of Lewis, King, Clifford, Toffoli (yes Toffoli, he excelled in that spot) and Pearson executing proper counterpinches and being favorites to win 50/50 battles are loooooong gone.
The Kings are small and soft on the wing. Nothing is really going to change, no matter how good Byfield and Turcotte may be until they get stronger on the wall. Who is going to grind out and hold on to late leads?
