The Kings could clinch home ice in the first round without so much as lacing up their skates on Sunday or they could do it Monday in more fitting fashion, with a head-to-head away win against the team chasing them, the arch-rival Edmonton Oilers.
They will then finish their road schedule in the penultimate game of the campaign, a duel with the Kraken in Seattle.
With Vegas winning Saturday, when the Kings also squeaked by Colorado, any focus on winning the division blurred. But now, the Oilers needed at least a point on Sunday against the West-leading Winnipeg Jets to avert the Kings clinching home ice in Round 1.
The Kings have taken two of three meetings from Edmonton already this year and appear likely to host them for the first time in what’s shaping up to be four straight first-round meetings (the prior three were all won by Edmonton).
“That’s what we want. We’re confident, just as a team, however it may go, but we want to play here, we want to play in front of our fans. They’ve been great to us all season and obviously we’ve done well here,” said Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke, referring to the Kings’ franchise record of home wins. “It’s our time to flip the script.”
Clarke said the Kings were trying to “win out, stay on this high and roll right into the playoffs,” but Coach Jim Hiller was more measured in his comments about the potential approach in Edmonton, Seattle and, later, the season finale at home against the Calgary Flames.
“It’s a fair question, I just don’t know, you know what I mean? We’re looking at (the Edmonton game) like it’s going to be a really big hockey game, and we’re going to have to have our best lineup, and it’s going to be a good game,” Hiller said “That’s the way we can look at it right now, but I don’t know if things will change.”
Hiller also recently told reporters that he felt he would have his full array of players for Game 1 of the playoffs, though it was unclear how literally that statement should be interpreted. As far as the final road trip of the campaign, he said he was “not sure” if defensemen Drew Doughty (lower-body) and Joel Edmundson (upper-body) would travel with the team.
As was the case early in the season, the absence of Doughty has opened up some opportunity for Clarke, and with new partners sans Edmundson. Clarke, who was scratched multiple times and used as a seventh defenseman in other instances, made a stellar play of an offensive-zone faceoff win to set up Alex Laferriere’s goal on Saturday and was involved in the buildup to Anže Kopitar’s tally. Hiller said that since the scratches, Clarke had “built his game back up” and that his “attention to detail had improved.”
Clarke said he was satisfied with how he’d refined his decision-making over time, striving for an increasingly level risk/reward balance, adding that there were situations where he had the “green light to activate or seal the wall.”
Clarke was asked if his confidence had wavered through any part of the process and offered as much vehemence as one can in a monosyllabic answer when he said “no.”
“Nothing is going to take his confidence away, I can tell you that for sure,” Hiller said. “That’s a compliment. You have to have that, if you want to really climb where he wants to get to.”
Awaiting them in their next game and all but certainly in the first round will be the Oilers, but what version of them remains to be seen. Connor McDavid came back and continued the scoring streak he left hanging before his injury. He extended it to 15 games (26 points) with a three-assist game and then a four-helper night, one on each goal in a 4-2 win over San Jose on Friday.
The Oilers, however, saw stalwart defenseman Mattias Ekholm aggravate his injury in that contest and Zach Hyman, a 54-goal scorer last season, exit the match and not return. Leading scorer Leon Draisaitl sounded unlikely to play before the playoffs begin. The Oilers missed at least half a dozen other regulars against San Jose.
In Seattle, the Kings will face a Kraken club that’s about to trade its hockey sticks for fishing poles, but one that has beaten them in two of three meetings this season, most recently handing them a rare regulation loss at home on April 7.
Related Articles
Kings hold off Avalanche, close in on first-round home-ice advantage Kings look to take advantage against depleted Avalanche Kevin Fiala, Kings power their way to rout of Ducks in final meeting of season Kings and Ducks ‘gotta fight for space’ in Freeway Faceoff finale Doughty, Gibson among nominees for Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Kings have chances to clinch home ice Sunday and Monday )
Also on site :
- Mediators work on plan for long-term truce as Israeli strikes on Gaza kill nine
- Help! I Want to Get Families With Loud, Reckless Kids Kicked Out of Restaurants.
- NICE Approves Dual Immunotherapy for Aggressive Bowel Cancer