The Los Angeles Kings are dead. 

Like, really, really dead. 

The Vegas Golden Knights made quick work of L.A. in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, sweeping the Kings in four games. As a result, Vegas becomes just the third team in North American pro sports history to sweep an opponent in their first-ever playoff series in franchise history. For Vegas, the accomplishment comes in their inaugural season. 

Now, the Knights will head on to the next round to face either the Sharks or Ducks. As for the Kings, they're the first team out of the playoff bracket and it'll be a long offseason ahead. 

Let's identify where things went wrong.

Kings' lack of offense

No doy, right? The Kings' lack of production was the story all series long. Los Angeles was shut out twice and scored just three times the entire series. Considering that it is literally impossible to win a series when you only score three goals, this is a pretty easy deficiency to highlight.

By the numbers, this appears to be a closer series than it actually was. The two teams were nearly equal in shots (Vegas totaled 131, L.A. had 130) and the Golden Knights won every game by just a single goal, but those numbers are pretty misleading.

The Knights held advantages in total possession and zone time in the series, and they owned 62 percent of the scoring chances in all situations. Their pressure was relentless – they dictated play, were able to generate better breakouts and more high quality chances, all the while effectively smothering the Kings attack, or lack thereof.

The Kings got a bit stronger as the series went on, but that's not saying much. Their two-goal output in Game 3 felt like an offensive explosion by comparison, and they held a 27-21 advantage in scoring chances during Game 4.

But none of that means anything if you don't score.

The Kings' offense was spotty throughout the season (they finished 17th in total scoring, 20th at 5-on-5) but nothing compared to their struggles against Vegas in the first round.

Absence of star power

It feels weird to say that the Kings were the team lacking the talent and star power in this series when they have almost a dozen players remaining from the 2014 Stanley Cup team – including their core of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jeff Carter -- while the Knights are a roster literally composed of other teams' leftovers.

And yet here we are.

The Kings' depth isn't overly impressive to begin with, but the roster looks a whole lot worse when their star players aren't playing like stars. Anze Kopitar is pretty much the only Kings forward worthy of anything slightly resembling praise in this series. He led all Kings players with two points. Two.

Dustin Brown, the former Kings captain who has had an outstanding bounce back year this season, had just one point.

Carter, Doughty, Tyler Toffoli, Tanner Pearson, Adrian Kempe and pretty much every recognizable name that the Kings have relied on to push them through this year laid a big fat goose egg. Carter was particularly bad. Doughty missed Game 2 thanks to one-game suspension.

The Golden Knights might be comprised of leftovers, but decent leftovers are more desirable when a newly prepared dish tastes like trash.

The almighty Marc-Andre Fleury

Goaltending was excellent on both ends throughout the series, but Marc-Andre Fleury was a man possessed. Fleury stopped 127 of 130 total chances (.977 save percentage) and, although he wasn't particularly pressured much in the early going, he was especially good in Game 4.

When L.A. offensive unit started putting together some consistent pressure in the offensive zone late in the series, Fleury held strong and kept them frustrated. He refused to give them hope, stopping pretty much everything he should have, plus some of the ones he shouldn't.

He was as good as anyone could have hoped. With Jonathan Quick also great in net (.947 save percentage) and every game coming down to a single goal, he was the Knights' most important player.

It continues an incredible resurgence for Fleury, who is becoming a legitimate superstar in Vegas following a long tenure in Pittsburgh. The 33-year-old finished the regular season with a .927 save percentage and 2.24 goals against average

It's probably unfair to expect him to be THIS good moving though the playoffs and Vegas' offense will likely provide him with a little more support than they did against L.A.'s top-ranked defense, but the Knights will need him to continue being a difference-maker as they move along.

What more do you want from me?

Listen, I can pull more stats, dig deep to write a bunch of words, and get more analytical here to round out the final few reasons, but why even bother? The Kings scored three goals in this series. That's not good! it's actually really, really bad!

The Kings scored three goals

I swear, I'm not joking. Look it up.