In the short term, the Kings will seek to extend their winning streak to a season-high five games, and, in the long run, they’d love to unseat the defending Stanley Cup champions.
To accomplish either goal, they’ll have to get past the Colorado Avalanche, their opponent Thursday and last year’s title winner.
So what will coach Todd McLellan say to his club to emphasize the importance of the Kings’ lone road game amid a stretch of 10 matches at home?
“Probably not a lot, they’ll know,” he said. “They know who they’re playing against and how tough that building is to play in, so they’ll know.”
The Kings won in Colorado on Dec. 29, a 5-4 shootout victory that was their first one in Denver in four years and their first win over the Avalanche in 10 meetings. Presently, they ride a four-game wave, with a 4-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Monday in their rearview mirror. It was a contest where it felt like the Kings might have been able to pull away sooner, instead finding themselves tied in the third period and in a one-goal game late.
“Where we got ourselves in trouble was taking penalties at ill-advised times,” McLellan said. “The number of minutes we’ve lost on the power play over the last two weeks because of those penalties is far too many.”
Monday’s victory may have come at a cost, as defenseman Sean Durzi was evaluated for a head injury after receiving a thunderous hit from T.J. Oshie. Durzi did not return to the ice and on Wednesday the Kings recalled another right-shooting defenseman, Jordan Spence, from their American Hockey League affiliate. Spence has eight points in 27 games over the past two seasons with the Kings, and he has been one of the top scoring defensemen on a per-game basis over the past two seasons in the AHL.
The pace of play Thursday projects to be swift with two of the top-10 teams in terms of shots per game squaring off, something that didn’t seem to bother new Kings winger Zack MacEwen. Whether…
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