Finishing strong

Tonight will be the last chance for the Kings to earn points for a while. No matter what happens tonight against Calgary, the Kings will still be in a good position in the Western Conference going into their eight-day break, but therein lies the rub. While the Kings are practicing and relaxing, other teams will be playing games. Most other West teams play two or three games between now and Christmas, so there will be ample opportunity for West teams to close the gap on the Kings.

Terry Murray talked about the importance of finishing the first part of the schedule — 37 games, after tonight — with success…

MURRAY: “We talked about, from the start of the training camp, the importance of the schedule, to take advantage of it. We knew it was a pretty front-loaded schedule for us, and to get points now as it is after. After you get through the Olympic break, those points are very, very hard to come by, so we like where we’re at right now. We may be a little bit ahead of schedule, to be quite honest with you. We have set a pretty high bar, a standard, for ourselves, and with the number of people we have out of the lineup right now, we’re kind of mucking it through and finding a way to get points on the board.”