LOS ANGELES -- With only 13 games remaining in the regular season, the Los Angeles Kings have little time left to cement their spot in the playoffs.
And during a time in the season where losing and not receiving any points is the last thing you want, the Kings just can’t help themselves.
This afternoon the Kings were defeated 4-1 by the Buffalo Sabres at Crypto.com Arena.
Los Angeles currently holds third place in the Wild Card standings at 28-25-16 and 72 points - one point behind Nashville and six points behind Utah.
“You can win one game and you go up two spots in this game,” Mikey Anderson said in postgame interviews. “If you lose one game, you’re down three (spots). I think the race track is going to be until game 82. At this point you reset, you come back tomorrow and get ready to go. And you focus on getting two points against another team that’s right by us in the standings (Utah).”
But back-to-back losses is not going to get them where they want to go - the postseason.
“You need points every night right now,” Anderson said. “You can’t get out of it without anything so it sucks to be in this spot, to come out with points and to get nothing. I mean everyone around us, we’re on the same boat. It’s scoreboard watching but enough - you gotta do it yourself to get yourself in (the playoffs).”
Los Angeles started off well with Artemi Panarin scoring a power-play goal 10:48 into the opening period. Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe had the assists on Panarin's slap shot to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.
Tage Thompson would score the game-tying goal for Buffalo (44-20-6; 94 points) after 4:05 had passed in the second period, while the remaining 16 minutes of the period would remain scoreless.
Going into the final period tied, the game wasn’t out of the Kings’ hands.
But soon enough it would be.
Sam Carrick scored his 9th goal of the season with a backhand shot past Kings goalie Anton Forsberg to give the Sabres their first lead of the night.
The Kings challenged Carrick’s goal, thinking there was a missed stoppage and Sabres’ Zach Benson forced a high stick, but the goal stood and Kings received a delay of game penalty.
And just 50 seconds later Rasmus Dahlin found the back of the net, putting Buffalo on top by two.
“You got to just be able to play the exact same game for 50 minutes,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “...And for whatever reason we haven’t been able to close games out. I mean we didn’t have the lead, it’s tied, but I don’t like us giving up a 2-on-1 (Carrick’s goal) with under 10 minutes to go, off kind of a broken play.”
The Kings would add an extra attacker in the final minutes of the game, which only made things worse as Benson scored an empty-net goal, putting the nail in the coffin.
“It’s a tough way to lose (because) I thought for a lot of the game we were even or as good as them…played a pretty even game against a team that doesn’t lose very often. The (delay of game) penalty aside, you'd like to see us be a little tighter in insert situations.”
The Kings finished with 27 shots on goal and Forsberg finished with 29 saves.
Los Angeles went 1-for-3 on the power play and Buffalo went 1-for-1.
Up next:
The Kings head to Utah to face the Mammoth (36-28-6; 78 points) Sunday at 6 p.m.