The Week That Was
The Kings competed in games number 77, 78 and 79 of the 82-game regular season this past week. With all three games being played on home ice, the Kings dropped their first tilt of the week to the Seattle Kraken, but followed it up with a pair of wins to keep themselves in the driver seat for the all-important home ice advantage in the first round of the upcoming playoffs. The Kings offense was present in both of their wins totaling 11 goals in those two games, but was quiet in their lone loss as they could only find the back of the net once against the Kraken. As we close out this past week, the Kings currently lead the Edmonton Oilers by two points, but have one game in hand entering the final week of the regular season.
Game Recaps:
Notable News From The Week That Was:
- Drew Doughty (ankle) and Joel Edmundson (upper body) did not play in any of this past week’s games. Both defensemen are considered day-to-day.
- Quinton Byfield’s consistent offense this week led the Kings in scoring this past week with six points (3-3=6) across the three games. Byfield collected a goal in all three games while earning a trio of assists in the final two games.
- Kevin Fiala’s four-goal week has given himself the team-lead in goals with 34. Fiala jumped ahead of Adrian Kempe’s 33 goals, who has held the team lead in goals since the beginning of the season.
- Adrian Kempe does remain as the Kings lead point-getter with 68 points (33-35=68) in 79 games this season.
- Hot on his heels is linemate and captain Anze Kopitar, who has 65 points (21-44=65) in as many games.
- Darcy Kuemper’s streak of allowing two goals or fewer came to an end on Saturday at 15 games, but earned his 30th win of the season for the second time in his career.
- Kuemper currently ranks 2nd in the NHL in GAA (2.05), is T2nd in SV% (.921) and T3rd in shutouts (5).
- The Kings power play went 4-for-13 in the three games. The Kings power play now ranks 28th (17.1%).
- The Kings penalty kill went 7-for-8 on the kill across the three games. Their penalty kill now sits at 81.8%, good for 5th in the NHL.
The Week That Is
Three regular season games remain on the Kings schedule and they’ll be played this week. Beginning with back-to-back games on the road, followed by the last game of the season taking place on Thursday at home, the Kings enter the week controlling their own destiny in terms of having home ice advantage in the first round.
The Kings begin the week in Edmonton with a Monday night game against the Oilers, their soon-to-be playoff first round opponent for the fourth consecutive year. Still undetermined as to who will host the best-of-seven series, the Kings have a golden opportunity to sure that up on Monday. Currently leading the Oilers in the standings by two points, a win against the Canadian foe in any fashion will clinch home ice advantage for the Kings in round one. While the Kings will enter Monday set to play in the first half of a back-to-back, the Oilers who will enter the week on the second half of a back-to-back after defeating the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 on the road. Banged up and bruised, the Oilers are hoping to get healthy before the playoffs. Having defeated the Jets on Sunday without Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, Trent Frederic, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jake Walman, it’s yet to be seen or known if any of the listed players will return for Monday’s game or be ready to play come Game 1 of the first round. One player will be in the lineup is Connor McDavid, who returned from a lower-body injury this past Wednesday. After missing eight games between March 22nd-April 7th, McDavid has played in the team’s last three games and has an remarkable nine assists with a +8 plus/minus rating. McDavid, 28, who now sits one point shy of reaching the century mark (26-73=99) for the fifth consecutive season and eight time in NHL 10 seasons will be looking to accomplish that milestone against a Kings team in which he’s recorded two points (1-1=2) in two games this season. As for which goalie the Kings will see, the return of Stuart Skinner could be in the cards. Skinner returned to the lineup for the first time since March 26th on Sunday in Winnipeg, stopping 17 of the 18 shots faced. It’s unknown if it’ll be Skinner’s net come Game 1 of the playoffs as the goaltender has struggled this season posting a 25-18-4 record with a 2.87 GAA and .894 SV% while his counterpart Calvin Pickard has gone 22-9-1 with a 2.63 GAA and a .902 SV%. The Kings lead the head-to-head 2-1-0 against the Oilers this season with each team winning their home games so far.
The Kings will travel to Seattle following their playoff preview in Edmonton and will be looking for revenge after falling to the Kraken 2-1 at home last week. Seattle has taken two of the three meetings from the Kings this season and if the Kings happen to fall in Edmonton, the Kings will need to finish at least even with the Oilers in points to have home ice advantage because they hold the tiebreaker with more regulation wins. It’ll be the Kraken’s final game of the season on Tuesday and they’ve been playing spoiler as of late. The Kraken defeated the St. Louis Blues at home in a shootout their last time out, taking away their leverage for playoff seeding. The Kings will have slow down Brandon Montour after the defenseman netted the game-winning goal against the Kings last week. Montour, who just played in his 600th career game on Saturday leads his blue line in offense with 40 points (17-23=40) in 80 games. Also having solid offensive season is Jared McCann, who has eight points (4-4=8) in his last six games and leads the Kraken in scoring with 60 points (22-38=60) in 81 games this season.
After playing in their 41st and final road game of the regular season in Seattle, the Kings will return home to play in a Thursday make-up game against the Calgary Flames that was originally postponed due to the California wildfires on January 8th. What could be pivotal game for both teams, the Kings could still be fighting for home ice advantage and the Flames could be vying for a playoff spot. With two games remaining in their season the Flames are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, but could passes the St. Louis Blues and/or the Minnesota Wild by season’s end. With one game in hand on the two Wild Card holders entering the week, the Flames trail the Blues by two points and the Wild by three points, but will have to end the season with more points than either of the two clubs as they do not hold the current tiebreaker against either team. The Flames have leaned on their 23-year-old rookie goaltender all year, but especially as of late. From Gilroy, California, Dustin Wolf has the chance to become the NHL’s 21st goaltender to reach 30 wins in his rookie season if he can pick up wins in the last two games of his season. Wolf has an impressive 2.62 GAA and .910 SV%. this season and is 2-0-0 versus the Kings with a 1.00 GAA and a .967 SV%. Held to just two goals combined in the two games against the Flames,
Upcoming games and events this week:
- 4/14 @ Edmonton Oilers 7:00 (FanDuel Sports Network, NHL Network)
- 4/15 @ Seattle Kraken 7:30 (ESPN)
- 4/17 vs. Calgary Flames @ 6:30 (ESPN)
All Kings games can be heard on the ESPN LA App.
