The Los Angeles Kings can thank LeBron James.

The arrival of basketball's biggest star in Los Angeles has helped sweep a horrific start from the city's hockey team under the rug and away from the limelight.

The Kings have now lost four straight games, capped by an ugly 5-1 defeat against the Buffalo Sabres on home ice Saturday afternoon. The team decided to hold a closed-door meeting afterward in an attempt to sort things out.

"We talked about some stuff and what we got to do going forward here to right the ship," defenseman Jake Muzzin told NHL.com's Dan Greenspan. "That's all I am going to say about that."

Saturday's blowout loss has seemingly become routine for the Kings, as they've been outscored by a total of 21-5 during their drought.

The two-game home stretch was certainly a pair of contests the Kings expected to win, given that the Islanders and Sabres were out of the playoff race early last season.

"When things have been going wrong, a bad bounce here or there, things have been going south," Drew Doughty said. "You can't talk and say things have been lucky for the other team as much as maybe they have been. You got to work to get the luck back on your side, and we haven't done enough working and competing."

Head coach John Stevens was at a loss for words.

"I'll be honest, I don't have an answer at this second," Stevens said. "I thought after the way we played the other night we would come and rip the doors off the hinges tonight. We have great fans here, and guys love playing at home because of the support we get at home here, so I don't have an answer right now."

The Kings finished last season as the Western Conference's first wildcard seed, despite missing Jeff Carter for most of the season. With Carter back in the fold, the majority of last year's team returning, and the addition of Ilya Kovalchuk, expectations were high for the Kings heading into 2018-19, but they'll now have to climb out of a 2-5-1 hole.

"We've accepted being okay," Muzzin said. "It's not okay. It's not working. It's going to be a long year, guys will be moved if this continues. It's not what we want, so we've got to take a look in the mirror."

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The Anaheim Ducks will welcome their captain back Saturday night, as Ryan Getzlaf returns to the lineup after missing the last five games with a groin injury.

The club has still done well without Getzlaf, jumping out to a 5-1-1 record in seven games, which leads the Pacific Division.

Getzlaf hasn't dressed since the team's 1-0 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Oct. 6. The 33-year-old has two points in the two games he's played, each coming in the form of assists in the club's 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on opening night.

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With several key pieces missing from the club's blue line, the Boston Bruins will turn to 19-year-old Urho Vaakanainen against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night, head coach Bruce Cassidy told The Athletic's Joe McDonald.

Charlie McAvoy isn't feeling well and has been sent back to Boston for testing. Meanwhile, Kevan Miller has also returned to Boston while he deals with a right-hand injury suffered while blocking a shot against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. These ailments come in addition to Torey Krug, who hasn't played this season due to an ankle injury.

The Bruins selected Vaakanainen with the 18th overall pick in 2017. He spent last year in Finland's top professional league, tallying 11 points in 43 games. This season, he's picked up a pair of assists in six contests with the AHL's Providence Bruins.

The defensive pairings are expected to go as follows, per Cassidy:

Kampfer, a veteran of 166 NHL games, is also set to make his Bruins debut.

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Nashville Predators netminder Pekka Rinne has been placed on the injured reserve, the team announced Saturday.

Rinne left Friday's contest against the Calgary Flames following a collision with teammate Kevin Fiala. In his postgame availability, Predators head coach Peter Laviolette noted that it was not his decision to pull Rinne from the game.

Backup Juuse Saros replaced Rinne midway through the third period Friday. Saros is expected to start Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers.

In a corresponding roster move, the Predators have recalled minor-league goaltender Miroslav Svoboda. The 23-year-old is in his first pro season with the ECHL's Atlanta Gladiators.

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Jay Bouwmeester will watch this one from the press box.

The St. Louis Blues defenseman will be a healthy scratch for Saturday's contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs, coach Mike Yeo confirmed to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

"It's a very, very difficult decision for me as a coach," Yeo said. "Hopefully a game like this gives him a chance to reset."

It marks the first time Bouwmeester has been designated an extra skater in his 16-year career. Through six appearances this season, the 35-year-old has picked up just one assist, despite ranking third in ice time among St. Louis rearguards.

A flurry of offseason activity led many pundits to pick the Blues as a favorite this season, but the team has won just one of its first six contests, leaving Yeo looking for a shakeup.

Bouwmeester is on the final season of his five-year, $27-million contract.

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Taylor Hall is one of the NHL's most prolific producers. The New Jersey Devils winger is coming off a 93-point, MVP season and spent his summer perfecting his game to cement his status among the league's best.

What's brought Hall so much success, despite injury issues early in his career, has been his determination to improve upon his most valuable skills.

"There was never a moment that I thought about quitting through all those injuries ... I knew this is the career I wanted and I was willing to do what it took to get better so that nothing stood in my way," Hall told Under Armour at a recent photo shoot.

High-end year-to-year production is what separates the true superstars from the statistical outliers; as a player, Hall has the toolbox to be the guy season after season. Below, we analyze and grade three traits that make the Hart Trophy recipient one of the NHL's most dynamic talents.

Scoring

Hall's 19-goal scoring increase from the 2016-17 campaign played a major factor in his MVP season. He notched a career-best 39 tallies last year, including 27 in 40 games as the calendar flipped to 2018 - the second-highest total across the NHL.

The 26-year-old's offensive arsenal doesn't feature the booming one-timer like some of his goal-scoring peers. Instead, he uses a deadly wrist shot to burn opposing netminders with pinpoint precision. Hall creates offensive opportunities for himself with blazing speed to help push defenders back, then takes advantage of the extra space by capitalizing on his scoring chances.

Off the rush, at even strength, or with the man advantage, Hall's a threat to score at all times. He's also clutch, bagging five game-winning tallies since Jan. 1.

Grade: A

Playmaking

While his goal-scoring surge attracted most of the attention, Hall remained a premier playmaker over the course of his Hart Trophy campaign, finishing the season with 54 assists, including 20 helpers in 26 games over the course of a historic point streak that ran from January to March.

Hall manufactured chance after chance for his teammates, particularly with the man advantage. He ranked fourth league-wide with 16 assists from January onward to help lead the Devils to the NHL's 10th-ranked power play, marking the first time since the 2004-05 lockout that New Jersey operated on the man advantage at a 20 percent clip or higher.

Grade: A

Skating

Since his days as a highly-touted prospect in junior, Hall's greatest strength has been his speed. Few can match his highest gear in a straightaway race, and his ability to handle and distribute the puck without slowing down is essential to what makes him such an offensive threat.

"Every time he's got the puck, he's not trying to slow down to make a play, he's speeding up," teammate Travis Zajac told Sportsnet's Ryan Dixon. "I think there's only a few (NHLers) who can really do that, and he's one of them."

This, too, is a result of Hall's determination. He's been hard at work since he was nine years old.

"When I was (a) kid, it was a lot of fun playing ball hockey, roller hockey, street hockey, and on my backyard rink," Hall told Under Armour. "As I got older, I started training, I started running, and I started doing push ups and sit ups when I was 9 years old. In my teens, I got more serious and started weight training and having a more concrete schedule of workouts."

Today's NHL is all about speed, and Hall's wheels are a benefit to the Devils in all areas of the rink. He can fly through the neutral zone in transition, hound loose pucks in the offensive end, and take chances while knowing in the back of his mind he has the necessary speed to get back on defense if need be.

"I've never been the guy who just relies on his current skills," Hall said. "I work to improve myself every day."

It shows.

Grade: A+

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