As the Kings headed to Chicago, they sought to solve the bottom-dwelling Blackhawks on Thursday night, right their ship on the road this season and eventually scale above the Edmonton Oilers for home-ice advantage in what would be the two teams’ fourth consecutive first-round postseason matchup.
Each time either the Kings or Oilers have taken the ice of late, it seems one team elbows and scrapes its way above the other for second place in the Pacific Division. Edmonton’s 7-1 drubbing of Utah HC on Tuesday put the Kings three points back, meaning a victory in Chicago would still leave them in the three hole even if the Oilers fall in their game against Winnipeg on Thursday.
Furthermore, the Kings have lost both meetings to the ’Hawks this season, even though these are hardly the red-and-black-clad warriors of the 2010s. Only the San Jose Sharks lie between Chicago and the very bottom rung of the NHL ladder, and after losing rostered players near the trade deadline, both teams accelerated their plunge, each going 3-5-2 in their past 10 games.
Yet Chicago had taken just two of its previous 10 decisions before its March 3 whipping of the Kings, 5-1 in the Windy City, and only three of its first 11 games of the campaign before it handed the Kings a rare home loss on Nov. 2, albeit one that came in a shootout. The March loss was part of an 0-3-0 road trip, with the Kings’ previous 1-3-1 swing fresh in their minds from just before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
The Kings inverted their formula from last season, rising to the occasion against good teams, mostly at home, and faltering against lesser clubs, particularly on the road. They’ve won just two of eight games on the road against the bottom five teams in the NHL, including both games at San Jose and their only prior contest in Chicago, and are below a .500 combined winning percentage against those two clubs, Seattle, Buffalo and Nashville. Conversely, they’ve won three quarters of their games against the top five teams after recently shutting out Washington and having beaten Dallas twice, all at home. The Kings even earned road victories in Vegas, Winnipeg and Carolina.
Those were exceptions to the broader trend, however. The Kings own a .767 winning percentage and .833 points percentage at home, both league-bests, but see those clips drop precipitously to .361 and .431 in away games.
They had an opportunity to equal a season high by adding a sixth link to their chain of victories on Monday in Minnesota, where they instead fell to a heavily depleted Minnesota Wild club that was missing its leading scorer, top two-way centerman and arguably its best defenseman. Still, it was largely a Kings-style game, with no five-on-five goals scored in the Wild’s 3-1 win.
“Definitely, that was our goal coming in, was to bring that home game with us on the road,” Kings right wing Alex Laferriere told reporters. “On the last road trip, we did not have a good road trip, so we just wanted to keep building on that game we had at home.”
They’ll carry that same energy into Chicago, where 19-year-old phenom Connor Bedard leads the ’Hawks in scoring almost by default, his -33 rating a strong indicator of Chicago’s overall futility. Seth Jones, Taylor Hall, Craig Smith and Petr Mrazek were among the veterans that Chicago dealt in February and March, further thinning their ranks.
Goalie Spencer Knight, whom they acquired from Florida as part of the package for Jones, won his first three decisions as a Blackhawk, posting a .923 save percentage or better in all three appearances. His strongest outing came against the Kings, when he stopped 41 of 42 shots to help Chicago prevail decisively.
KINGS AT CHICAGO
When: Thursday, 5:30 p.m. PT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: FDSN West
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