Angeles Analysis – Winning On Fumes

A few games back, Todd McLellan said in a post-game media availability that the playoffs had already started as far as the LA Kings were concerned.

I’ve never attended an NHL postseason game. The Kings haven’t played in one since 2018……officially that is. If you’re going by intensity though, the last 48 hours featured what felt to me like a pair of postseason level contests.

The games in Edmonton and Calgary had playoff-like intensity to them, even if the reality of the situation – both games ended in the shootout, which obviously does not exist in the postseason – suggests otherwise. The feeling of something bigger, however, couldn’t have been much more noticeable.

Wednesday’s game against the Oilers saw the hosts come out hard, hot and heavy, applying pressure with speed and physicality off of the opening puck drop. The Kings had to weather the storm for a while and they hung in the game, long enough for two goals in 14 seconds to swing the tide from a 3-1 deficit to a tie game. The Kings really played their game in a third period that could have gone either way but wound up going neither way on a night when both teams deserved a point.

“It did [feel like a playoff atmosphere] and I thought our guys did a good job,” McLellan said. “They were prepared for it, it’s going to be that way until the end of the season. Our group, the group that we have playing right now, did a real good job tonight. We had to scratch and claw to come back.”

Last night’s game in Calgary was different, but the intensity was the same. Space was at a premium, with two of the NHL’s top-checking teams squaring off. When the Kings went up 1-0, you knew the checking from the Kings point of view would only intensify. When the score swung 2-1 the other way, you could say the same thing for Calgary. In coming back to tie that game at two, the Kings showed guts. They showed grit. They showed a commitment to never quitting, with no task to tall to overcome. And that’s a characteristic of a great team.

“Yeah, a little bit, for sure,” Viktor Arvidsson said last night, on if it’s felt like a playoff atmosphere these last two games. “It’s so tight in the West, it’s really tight, you have to earn every [inch] of ice there is out there. It’s fun to play in.”

Don’t let words like guts and grit take away from a good team performance though. The Kings had that too, matching up every bit to the Pacific Division leaders, on their ice. It’s the combination though that has made this team special, and continues to keep them thriving in big games, even on nights when they didn’t have a full tank of gas. With the price of gas these days and a stretch that included 16 games during the month of March, second-most in the NHL, it might be a bit until that tank is full anyways.

Todd McLellan said the Kings were running on fumes last night, with the team putting a ton into the 65 minutes (+) played in Edmonton. Facing a team like Calgary has the tendency to drain you quickly too, with their style of physical play combined with skill and aggression. That increased the need to have everyone involved, especially on night two, and everyone was.

The Kings got four goals from forwards over the games in Alberta, one from each line. When you’re playing back-to-back, with travel in between, and your big guns played minutes towards the top of their season highs on night one, depth and balance is important. The Kings got that last night. You couldn’t possibly ask for a more important trial by fire for that group of players to experience. Every point is important for the Kings right now and every shift could be the one that turns zero points into one, or one point into two. Or vice versa.

The Kings have done a lot of things to put themselves in a position to create the atmospheres we’ve experienced over the last two nights. They banked points early, especially on the road during the middle of the season. They played above .500 hockey with several regulars missing from the lineup, including a 6-4-3 mark since Drew Doughty suffered his most recent injury. Now, they’re getting games of consequence for the group they have available to them right now, with veteran players who have been there before intertwined with those who haven’t experienced the grind of an 82-game season, let alone the significant, stretch run games of April.

Now they are.

Insiders, no practice today, a well-deserved day off for the boys. We’re in Winnipeg for the day today, in advance of tomorrow evening’s road-trip finale versus the Jets. Another big two points on the line as the Kings continue to shrink their magic number!

Also of note – The Kings recalled forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan this morning from AHL-Ontario, again on an emergency basis. McLellan shared yesterday that decisions were made after warmups on the lineup, meaning that at least one individual at forward as a game-time decision. In order to have an emergency recall, a team needs to provide proof of injury or illness that has the team below 12 healthy forwards at a given time. As you saw yesterday, when all 12 forwards were ready to go, the Kings immediately re-assigned Anderson-Dolan to the Reign. We’ll see how it all shakes out tomorrow.

The @LAKings have made the following player transaction:

Jaret Anderson-Dolan (F) has been recalled from the Ontario Reign (AHL) on an emergency basis.@Enterprise | #PlayersOnTheMove

— LA Kings PR (@LAKingsPR) April 1, 2022