Kings in danger of being swept after third straight loss to Avalanche
Alex Hutton
Host · Writer
The Los Angeles Kings are learning in real time just how hard it can be to beat the Colorado Avalanche this season.
After playing arguably their two best periods of the series to open the game, the Kings struggled with puck possession and pace control in the third period, ultimately suffering a 4-2 loss. Unable to get a much-needed win for momentum in the series, they instead find themselves in a 3-0 series deficit against the Presidents’ Trophy winners.
“I thought we got away from the game plan, the way we want to play, which is play fast, play north, play physical,” Kings interim head coach D.J. Smith said. “I thought we started to build in and started to play slow. And that plays into their hands.”
The Kings now face an extremely difficult uphill battle, needing to not only win four games in a row but do so against perhaps the NHL’s best team.
“Just one game at home. Must win game,” said defenseman Drew Doughty, who was a member of the 2014 Kings team which remains the most recent team to overcome a 3-0 hole in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. “Everyone’s going to give everything they got and [we] gotta win that one, and then hopefully get to go back to Denver.”
If the Kings are going to pull off the miracle comeback, they’ll need to find more offense. They have scored just four goals through three games, and only one of them came at even strength.
According to MoneyPuck, during the regular season the Kings finished seventh in the NHL in expected five-on-five goals percentage, but they have not been nearly as evenly matched against an Avalanche team that led the league in that category.
“In the regular season, we scored,” Smith said. “We were scoring at a really, really good rate. We’re getting those looks. We’re just not capitalizing.”
That one even-strength goal came in tonight’s game from Trevor Moore, with assists from Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere. That trio has been arguably the team’s best line during this series both offensively and defensively, but the success they’ve found will need to apply to the rest of the team to give them a chance.
“We’re just checking right now. I feel like we gotta keep making their D turn, just be more physical on them,” Byfield said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, just make them turn, grind them down low and try to get to the net. Just simplify it a little bit.”
This series is, in many ways, playing out similarly to the Kings’ regular season. They keep talking about how close they are, but aren’t always able to turn those close games into wins. Eventually, they did enough to get into the playoffs. Now they’ll have to do even more to win a single game in this series, to get an additional game at home next week, to reach the second round and extend Anze Kopitar’s career in the process.
“The fans were outstanding tonight. The energy was outstanding,” Smith said. “I think we got to give them a win. We got to give them something. I thought, right from the morning skate, just being in this building, and then the fans when we scored, that playoff buzz was incredible. I think, to a man, we want to give them a real good outing and push this series back to Colorado.”
