Keeping one eye on Dallas

It’s a huge night in terms of Western Conference playoff implications. The ninth-place Kings host 10th-place San Jose, while third-place Dallas hosts seventh-place Phoenix (with the winner claiming first place in the Pacific Division) and eighth-place Colorado hosts 11th-place Calgary. What are the Kings’ rooting interests. According to the website sportsclubstats.com, which tracks teams’ playoff chances, the games won’t have a huge impact on the Kings’ chances, as long as they aren’t overtime games. According to the website, the Kings have a slight rooting interest in Dallas beating Phoenix, and in Calgary beating Colorado. The difference, though, is slight. The Kings will just want to see a regulation winner in each game. More importantly, as Mike Richards noted, they’ll want to beat San Jose.

RICHARDS: “Looking at the schedule, a lot of the other teams play each other too, so what we’ve got to do is win hockey games and look after ourselves. Sometimes you scoreboard-watch, but as long as we take care of our business, we should be fine.”