Kings, Blackhawks familiar with raised stakes

Teams and circumstances change from year to year, but for the Los Angeles Kings’ core, this isn’t the first time that they’ve had an opportunity to close out a series at home in a Game 6.

Last year, the team completed the “reverse sweep” against the St. Louis Blues by dropping the first two road games before storming back with four consecutive wins. The final game – dubbed by The Royal Half as the “McFlurry Miracle on Ice” – was a game in which Los Angeles needed a home win in Game 6 to advance. Dustin Penner’s goal with under a second remaining in the second period made it so.

There’s also Game 6 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, a game that may contain a set of circumstances more similar to those surrounding tonight’s game. After the Kings jumped out to a three-nothing series lead, the Devils won a pair of games – including a Game 5 on home ice – and traveled to the west coast needing a win at Staples Center to bring the series back to Newark for Game 7. That did not happen.

“I think every game, every series is different,” Dustin Brown said. “But again, it’s not about how you feel, it’s about how you approach it. We’re on home ice. We have to take care of business and that’s up to individuals to bring their A-game. We need everyone to play well. We don’t need anybody to be great, and that’s the key to our team.”

Considering that the Kings are facing a team that has won two Stanley Cups this decade – and returned from a three-one series deficit to do so in 2013 – there are innate aspects in their opponents’ character that have the potential to give rise to the same urgency and desperation embedded in Los Angeles’ own psyche during series comebacks against San Jose and Anaheim.

“I said both teams have been through almost every hole imaginable in the last few years and come out on top,” Justin Williams said. “It’s going to be us or them. We’re just going to make sure it’s us. We know how important this game is. We don’t want to hop on another flight cross-country. So we’re going to do the best we can tonight.”

Justin Williams, on whether Chicago has new life after winning Game 5:
It’s a playoff series. It’s a struggle and it’s tough. We obviously didn’t have our best game. We fought back a couple times last game, but gave them a little life. But hey, we’re 3-2. We’ve got home ice right now. We’re excited about the opportunity.

Williams, on whether they treat this game as though it were a Game 7:
It’s not, but you can certainly say that. Anytime you have a team on the brink of elimination, you’re going to get their best. We need to make sure we match the desperation that they set out and then forge ahead.

Williams, on whether they expect anything different from Chicago in Game 6:
Both teams have been there before. Both teams have been in almost every situation imaginable in the playoffs in the last few years. We need to find a way to killer instinct, to step on their throat and finish it off.

Williams, on any change in home ice play since Game 3 of the San Jose series:
I don’t know. We’ve obviously established the game we want to play. I think scoring first has obviously been a lot better than not scoring first for us. So we’re going to look to get a great start and hopefully get on the board first. But if we don’t, we’ll deal with it.

Williams, on their style of play:
Specifically, it certainly means we’re not a team that slows it down. We’re puck possession. We’re a hard-nosed team. We’re a team that doesn’t trade chances with other teams and that will wear you down.

Williams, on how badly the Kings want to end the series tonight:
Pretty bad.