On Wednesday, the Kings will welcome the Vancouver Canucks to their court, Crypto.com Arena, where they’ve been all but impossible to dethrone this season.
The black and silver’s 19-3-2 record gives them the best home points percentage in the NHL (.833). In the unlikely event that they win out at home, they would equal the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings’ 36-3-2 mark, the best ever in an 82-game season. The most vulgar display of power on home ice was by the Philadelphia Flyers of 1975-76, who captured 92.5% of their points at home during an 80-game campaign and did so with a staggering 3.15 average goal differential (the Kings’ is 1.25 this year).
Just being mentioned with those consecrated rosters would be an honor for any team. Philly was vying for its third Stanley Cup in a row that season, falling to Montreal in the Final for the Habs’ first of four consecutive crowns. Detroit advanced to the conference finals in ‘96 before winning back-to-back Cups in ‘97 and ‘98.
After Monday’s 5-2 win over Pacific pace car Vegas, the Kings were still jockeying around the top three in their division, hoping to host a postseason matchup for the first time since 2016’s first-round loss to San Jose.
While it may not be an overly prominent concern for the regular season –– 17 of their final 27 games will be played at Crypto.com Arena –– there exists a massive disparity between the Kings’ home and away splits. Most notably, they’re 12-14-5 when ordering room service, giving them a substandard .458 road points percentage.
Last season, the Kings began the campaign with a record 11 straight road wins, but after a February coaching change, their comfort level at home elevated and an aversion to the road began to develop.
“It’s a complete flip flop from last year. We were more of the road warriors,” said Kings win Quinton Byfield. “We want opponents to kind of fear coming in and playing in LA.”
Regardless of the venue, the Kings have seen chemistry persist for their top defensive pairing of Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavriov, while the forward line of Byfield, Kevin Fiala and Alex Laferriere has blossomed of late.
While that duo has largely remained a fixture, even with seven defensemen in the lineup regularly, the trio of attackers was dispersed throughout the lineup at times Monday. Byfield, who had a career-high four points against Vegas, reconnected with old pals Adrian Kempe, Warren Foegele and Trevor Moore, while also setting up Fiala.
Coach Jim Hiller said part of the rationale there was his effort to spark Kempe and captain Anže Kopitar’s production.
“We were just trying to get that line, who carried us in many ways for the first half of the season, to just get some traction again and get feeling good about their game, [to get] some consistent time in the o-zone, some chances,” Hiller said. “It just hasn’t happened a lot lately.”
What has happened more frequently lately has been the Kings’ otherwise languid power play connecting. They scored with the extra man in consecutive games for just the third time this season (one was a string of three straight matches), and added another goal nine seconds after an opportunity expired on Monday.
They’ll look to carry over momentum, both recently with the man advantage and all season at home, against Vancouver, which has lost both its games since returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off break. That’s taken them from running neck-and-neck with the Kings for third place in the Pacific to clinging to a one-point lead on Calgary for the West’s second wild card.
This campaign has been a time of tumult for the Canucks as injuries, infighting, underperformance and the departure of J.T. Miller via trade have hindered the prospects of the NHL’s most-improved team last season.
