Stuck on six

The Kings didn’t get any help from the Phoenix Coyotes last night, as Calgary beat Phoenix to keep the Kings’ “magic number” for the playoffs at six. The Kings did get some secondary help, as the Ducks beat Colorado to keep the Kings in seventh place, three points ahead of the eighth-place Avalanche with an equal number of games.

Technically, the Kings’ magic numbers if five, IF they record at least two wins among their last six games. That’s because the first tiebreaker is total wins. If Calgary finishes 5-0, the Flames will have 44 wins. The Kings, right now, have 43. So if the Kings get five more points (with at least four of those points coming from wins), there’s no way the Flames could pass them in points or wins.

Tonight, fifth-place Nashville hosts St. Louis sixth-place Detroit hosts Columbus, and the seventh-place Kings host third-place Vancouver. If the cards break right for the Kings, they could rise to fifth or sixth place tonight. Regardless, the Kings have a chance to control their own destiny, to clinch a playoff spot independent of what other teams are doing, and that’s what Terry Murray is stressing to his team.

MURRAY: “That is the message. That’s exactly the follow-through with the game we showed (Tuesday) night, especially the start. We’ve stumbled out of the gate, I think, in the last several games until (Tuesday), kind of hesitant and a little reluctant to play with the energy and the attack-mode style of game that we play best. We were able to relax and come out with the right attitude, as far as, `Let’s just go play our game, guys.’ We’ve shown it all year long. We want to be aggressive in that forecheck cycle game, and we want to build off what happened (Tuesday) night. So it’s nice to get right back at it again (against Vancouver).”