Playoff position on line for Kings tonight

The Kings got leapfrogged, by Phoenix, for seventh place in the Western Conference on Thursday when they lost to the Coyotes. Tonight, should the Kings lose to Calgary in regulation, they would fall behind the Flames and into ninth place and out of a playoff position. With only 24 games remaining in the season, that’s no joke. Phoenix doesn’t look like it is going away, and despite significant injury problems, Calgary has a 4-0-3 record in February. After today’s skate, I asked Darryl Sutter if he would bring the players’ attention to the standings before tonight’s game…

SUTTER: “I don’t really look at it like that. I look at it like there’s two spots for seven or eight teams. So I don’t see any difference in those teams. We played an awesome game against Phoenix the other night, and we lost. It was the first time we lost to them in regulation this year. I don’t think you’re going to sweep anybody, quite honestly. At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to your head-to-head against those teams. That’s how close the teams are. There’s no difference in wins, losses. There’s just not enough of a gap in those teams.’’