Alexander: Are Kings about to make some noise in the playoffs?
LOS ANGELES — So who is the Kings’ most bitter rival now? Is it the Ducks, the neighborhood irritant who is again out of the playoff picture? Or is it the Edmonton Oilers, who have knocked L.A. out in the first round three straight springs?
Well, consider: The Oilers, minus injured stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and No. 1 goalie Stuart Skinner, were in downtown L.A. for a Saturday matinee, and early in the game No. 90 in Edmonton blue and white was booed the first time he touched the puck.
It was Corey Perry.
Oh, never mind. There’s a long history there, encompassing both the Ducks and Oilers – as well as Dallas, Montreal, Tampa Bay and Chicago, Perry’s other career stops.
That said, Kings-Oilers games are always significant, even when one side isn’t at full strength. Saturday, the Kings took advantage of the Oilers’ predicament with a 3-0 victory that included Kevin Fiala’s 30th goal of the season. It put them four points ahead of Edmonton with five regular season games remaining.
“The guys in that room, in their room, I’m pretty sure they would have liked nothing more to come into this building and beat us without the players that they don’t have right now,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said.
The teams split their first two meetings, the Kings losing in regulation in Edmonton and the Oilers in overtime in downtown L.A. earlier this season. Edmonton is now 0-1-1 here, but the Oilers aren’t alone. The Kings are 29-4-4 at home, best in the league, and I think it’s safe to assume that the opportunity to at least play their first series at home is vital after they’ve ceded home ice to the Oilers the last three seasons and come up short each time.
“Listen, there’s going to be times in the playoffs where you got to win on the road too,” captain Anze Kopitar said. “We have confidence in his team … Yeah, (home ice) is there for the taking, obviously. But we’re going game by game and building our game.”
The Kings’ final regular season meeting with the Oilers will be a week from Monday in Edmonton, and it could either determine who has home ice in a Kings-Oilers series … or, conceivably, it could determine if the Kings can catch the Vegas Golden Knights for the division title and a wild card opponent in the first round.
The reality, numbers aside: This could be a sneaky good, sneaky dangerous team in the postseason, and assuming the worst after the last two unsatisfying springs might be a mistake.
For one thing, midseason acquisition Andrei Kuzmenko could help salvage general manager Rob Blake’s reputation as an executive. Kuzmenko, acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers on March 7 as part of a deal that also included a swap of draft picks, scored his 11th goal of the season Saturday, has five goals and six assists in 11 games with the Kings and has fit in well with Kopitar and Adrian Kempe on the No. 1 line.
“He’s obviously a high skill guy,” Kopitar said. “His offensive zone play is very impressive, how he creates stuff when you don’t necessarily think that he can create. And he’s been getting on the scoresheet. So it’s definitely good for (his) confidence.
“When you get traded and get to a new team, I’m sure he was a little hesitant at first. But it’s on me and Juice (Kempe) to get him comfortable first and foremost and then just get the chemistry going. And right now, it seems like we got it going.”
While Kuzmenko has bolstered the top line, Kevin Fiala – playing on a line Saturday with Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere – scored his 30th goal of the season, batting in a rebound of a Laferriere shot to put L.A. on the board in the second period. But he has also drawn praise from Hiller for his recent attention to other details of the game, some of which he’s tended to let slip at times.
“This season’s probably aged both him and I, to be honest with you,” Hiller said. “I think it’s aged him, but it’s aged us both in a good way. He’s playing his best. Or I’m going to say over the last week he’s played as well as I’ve seen him play. So we’ve got a ways to go.
“But if you noticed, backchecking, lifting sticks, forechecking. He tracked somebody down the other night and stole the puck. … There’s just some consistency in other areas of the game that we wanted from him. And I think right now, over the last week (to) ten days at least, he’s giving us exactly what we want. I think he feels pretty good about it. He should because he’s still creating a lot of offense during that same time.”
Meanwhile, hot goalies tend to take over when the playoffs begin. When the Kings were winning Stanley Cups, Jonathan Quick was as good as anyone in hockey in net. And while it may be blasphemous to ordain Darcy Kuemper as The Man just yet, consider: He’s 28-10-7 with a 2.02 goals-against average and .921 save percentage. He’s 10-2-1 in his last 13 starts, with just 15 goals allowed, and Saturday was his fifth shutout this year and the 36th of his career.
And he’s 12-4-4 lifetime against Edmonton if it comes to that.
So there are good reasons why the vibes in the Kings’ room are pretty good at this point since they’ve won four in a row and are 13-3-0 since March 18.
“I mean, it’s a confident group,” Kopitar said. “We’ve been playing pretty well. You know, some nights, you know, not necessarily the greatest hockey but still gets it done.”
Maybe this year they’ll end their streak. The last playoff series this franchise won ended June 13, 2014, when Alec Martinez’ double overtime goal – remember the “jazz hands” celebration? – beat the Rangers and gave the Kings their second Stanley Cup in three seasons.
They’re 0 for 5 in playoff series since. Time for a change, maybe?
jalexander@scng.com