Kings Rally for Kopitar, Clinch 5th Straight Playoff Berth – Hockey Writers – Los Angeles Kings

“I’m not willing to play just seven more games.”

Playing in his 20th and final NHL season, those were the blunt words of Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar following a 5-4 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators on April 2, as the Kings stayed on the outside looking in.

Kopitar didn’t just say that he spoke and it happened. Since that stretch, the Kings have strung together a five-game winning streak (their longest streak of an entire season), three of which are in regulation – which is a lot for a team that has only collected 22 on the season – and punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fifth straight season.

“It’s amazing,” forward Trevor Moore said after the Kings held off the Seattle Kraken 5-3 for the win. “It’s been a sad thing for a long time, but I’m really proud of our team for sticking together, believing in ourselves, and continuing this run.

The Playoffs are every team’s goal every season. In all the trials and tribulations this season brought to the Kings, one thing that remained constant was the making of Kopitar. Above all else, find a way to the playoffs and give Kopitar the final dance.

“That’s what it’s all about,” forward Quinton Byfield said. “You want to do it for each other, but at the beginning of the year, we talked about it, we wanted to show Kopi again what he did for the organization. There was very little we could do.”

After last season ended badly following the fourth exit in the playoffs for the Edmonton Oilers, the question is how this team can improve to be able to overcome the hump this season. Despite that goal that has entered their minds, there is nothing Amakhosi has shown on the ice throughout this season that gives confidence in that.

The chances of qualifying for Amakhosi were 95% before the season started. This figure dropped to 6% on March 6 when the Kings were sitting three points in second place without playing and having no games in hand. That number dropped to 89% entering last night’s game against the Kraken.

The swing in those percentages is a true testament to what the Kings have been this season: A team that’s been below par all season, good enough to stay in the playoffs, competing in the Pacific Division abyss. A team that was ready to extend what seemed like every game to overtime and pick up so-called forfeits to stay afloat.

It got to the point where it looked bleak so Amakhosi could no longer continue running with coach Jim Hiller leading the way. If the Kings hadn’t promoted DJ Smith to the position of interim coach at that time, we probably wouldn’t be talking about the playoffs right now.

Related: Kings’ Playoff Hopes May Be Realized With 9 Games To Go

Change is what allowed this group to see you long enough to make a difference. The additions of Artemi Panarin and Scott Laughton provided much-needed stability to a team that lost Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko. The youthful energy provided by guys like Jared Wright, Taylor Ward, and Samuel Helenius gave the Kings a second engine on most nights. The new impact and confidence guys like Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield, and Trevor Moore gained under Smith.

Anton Forsberg’s ability to step in and act as a top goalie when things were tough for Darcy Kuemper. Or what about a change of pace? A change of style? The tenacity and tenacity that Smith has focused on has forced this team to go after him and make plays rather than sit back and wait for things to happen.

It’s one thing to make the playoffs, and to make a noise about it, which is what this club set for itself last July. No one expects the Kings to do anything this postseason and for good reason. But you know what they say: anything can happen in the playoffs, you just have to go in. Is a Cinderella story on Kopitar’s final sound cards? Eighth-seeded teams have made the playoffs before, including the team that brought the city of Los Angeles its first Stanley Cup in 2012.

How It Can Move

No one wants to play the wagon that is the Colorado Avalanche, who have run away with the league since the puck was dropped in October. As it stands now, the Kings will be the first team to taste Avalanche playoff hockey. However, there are still two games left for the Kings to face the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames and a chance to give themselves a better finish than meeting the Avalanche in Round 1.

If the Kings sit in the second spot of the cards, they will face the Avalanche.

If the Kings are only one point behind the Utah Mammoths, they can jump into the first wild card spot, rather than the Kings facing the Vegas Golden Knights, Anaheim Ducks, or Edmonton Oilers.

I think it’s safe to say that the Kings don’t want to see the Oilers in Round 1, unless the other option is the Avalanche. It doesn’t seem to matter if the Kings are the better team or not, when it comes to the Oilers in Round 1, they just fall short.

What would most people like to see? I think the obvious answer is to get to witness the Freeway Faceoff in Round 1 and see the Kings and Ducks battle in Southern California.

It doesn’t matter who the Kings play, it will be a battle where they may not be the favourites. But what he needs to do is motivate the Kings to show that they can compete, and all he intends to do is show that.

“I don’t think people are going to expect us right now to do a lot, but we’re going to be tough. We’re going to play hard,” Smith said.