One point out of a playoff spot. Nine games remaining. The Los Angeles Kings have a clear task ahead of them in the final sprint of the regular season, and they’re willing to try anything to reach the postseason.
At Tuesday’s practice, that desperation manifested itself in the form of new defense pairings. Head coach D.J. Smith is now having Drew Doughty pair up with Brian Dumoulin instead of his usual partner Mikey Anderson. Anderson, meanwhile, will team with Cody Ceci.
“I think Ceci and Mikey, their strength, for sure, is defending, and they’re going to get some matchups against the other team’s top guys,” Smith said. “And I think Dumo can provide a lot of offense on the [offensive] zone blue line, as well as Drew, and that allows them to get a few more touches in that area.”
The moves were done in response to a 6-2 home loss to the Utah Mammoth on Saturday, marking the team’s fifth loss in six games. The Kings’ home record this season is now just 10-17-8.
“I think [the adjustment is] just to change it up a little bit,” Anderson said. “Obviously, we’re at home. We haven’t been great at home this year.”
The Kings’ next two home games are their most important in a long time, and possibly the two most important of the season. Tomorrow, they host the St. Louis Blues, who are three points back of the Kings. The following day, they’ll face the Nashville Predators, who sit one point ahead of them, narrowly holding on to the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
“I’ve spent a lot of time since I’ve been here playing against other guys’ top lines, so maybe [this move is] to be more of a defensive side, and I know Ceci is like that too,” Anderson said. “At the start of the year, we’d done that a little bit, where we’d play against the other [team’s] top guys. So maybe from that standpoint, we get to, I don’t want to say hone in defensively, but we get to take a little more pride in trying to shut down whoever St. Louis has on their top line, who is going, and then Nashville and down the stretch at home, you get your matchup. I think we can, as a whole, still be a little better defensively, night in and night out.”
At this point, with the games this meaningful, the Kings have to take risks, which can include aggressive lineup changes. It’s one part of their larger, team-wide push to finish the regular season on the right side of the playoff line.
“We think it’s [the] playoffs right now,” forward Alex Laferriere said. “I think everybody’s kind of in the same mindset of how important these games are and that we need to win these games, and we’re gonna leave everything out there in order to win those games. I think top to bottom, I think our mindset’s all the same, that these are must-win games.”