With the playoffs clinched, the last two games for the Los Angeles Kings are about positioning in the postseason. Tonight’s game may prove to be a missed opportunity.
Although the Kings got the majority of chances in the contest, they snapped a five-game winning streak with a 4-3 overtime loss to the last-place Vancouver Canucks. It is their NHL-leading 20th overtime loss of the season.
The loss is made more painful by other results around the league tonight. After the Anaheim Ducks lost in regulation, the Kings had a chance to move into the third-place standing in the Pacific Division. Instead, they remain in the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot, which would lead to a series against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.
“Probably a little too flat for what we need,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said of the Kings’ performance. “And you got to carry these games with you into the playoffs. So get a good reset tomorrow and try and have a good one to finish it off.”
While the Kings can still move out of that position and even gain home-ice advantage for the first round, they do not control their own destiny for either and must count on other teams to lose their final games in addition to winning their own season-ender.
“If we win [these] games, there’s a huge possibility we could be playing in front of our fans in game one and two, and that definitely gives us an advantage,” forward Alex Laferriere said. “So we want to do that.”
Depending on the results over the next two days, the Kings could play the Ducks, Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights or Edmonton Oilers in the first round. The Avalanche have had by far the best season of those teams, and the prospect of a fifth straight first-round series against the Oilers would likely frustrate many Los Angeles fans. However, the circumstances are ultimately too complicated — and too out of the Kings’ control — to try to manipulate a certain opponent.
“We’re going to go out and play our best, but you got to let it fall where they may,” interim head coach D.J. Smith said. “And whoever we play is going to be higher than us, most likely, in the standings if anyone wins. So I don’t think you can sit back and try and pick who you’re gonna play. You gotta go and just make sure your team’s ready when the playoffs [start].”
If the Kings have a positive to take from being lower in the standings, it’s that both of their championship runs have come from that position. They won the Stanley Cup in 2012 as an eight seed, then won it again in 2014 after finishing third in the Pacific following the NHL’s change in playoff format. Two players from those teams, Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, are still on the Kings.
“In times like this, you gotta kind of focus and lean back on your leaders, and Drew and Kopi are those guys for us,” Laferriere said. “They’re telling us how it feels like 2012 in here, and how they were stringing together some games at the end of the season and crept in and then they went on to win the Cup. I think right now, it’s just about continuing trending positively with our game, and stringing those along and just trying not to take any huge dips. And I think we’re gonna be in a good spot going into game one.”