Dustin Penner

Yes, it’s a worn-out cliché, but the Los Angeles Kings certainly didn’t picture their season to be playing out the way it has thus far. No proud franchise wants to be sitting in third place within their division a little more than a quarter of the way through the season. At 13-10-4 through 27 games, it would be far from an understatement to say that these Kings have underachieved.

Success is never a guarantee, even when seemingly all the right pieces are in all the right places. Professional teams from all over the world with far higher expectations (and consequently) far more media exposure have set the bar disappointing fans, players and owners alike. And let’s ...