After winning a coin flip of a Freeway Faceoff, the Kings were off to Western Canada for three games in four nights that they could ill afford to leave to chance.
They’re in a points tie with Monday’s opponent, the same Edmonton Oilers that eliminated them in consecutive postseasons and who possess the tiebreaker as well as a game in hand. They’ll be moving on to Calgary for Tuesday’s clash with the Flames and, ultimately, to Vancouver on Thursday for the first of four meetings in five weeks with the division-leading Canucks.
Heading into the All-Star break, the Kings and Oilers were moving in opposite directions with the Kings dropping 14 of 17 games and Edmonton capturing 16 straight. Since returning to action, however, the Kings have posted a 6-2-0 mark while the Oilers have gone 4-5-1.
“Every point matters right now. We dug ourselves in a bit of a hole there in January, so we need to take every win we can get now,” Kings defenseman Matt Roy said after a 3-2 shootout win over the Ducks on Saturday.
The Kings did not surrender any even-strength goals against the Ducks but they haven’t scored any in more than 125 minutes either. Drew Doughty’s garbage-time tally against Columbus gave way to two complete contests and an overtime across which the Kings scored three power-play goals (including two by Kevin Fiala, who’s got a man-advantage marker in three straight appearances) but none at even strength.
“Getting closer to [the] playoffs, I think 5-on-5 play is going to be huge,” said Roy, who played predominantly with Brandt Clarke after Mikey Anderson’s week-to-week injury scrambled the defense corps. “If we can keep that to a minimum, get some of our own 5-on-5 and let our special teams do their work, I think it’s going to help us a lot.”
The playoffs are always very much a focus when the Kings and Oilers collide, given that Edmonton has sent the Kings home in consecutive campaigns. This season, they’ve split two meetings to…
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