Inside The Numbers – With The Playoffs Assured, A Look At What’s To Come For The Kings

kINgs – Get It, Insiders?

The LA Kings are in, playoff-bound for the second straight season. As covered yesterday, there’s a lot still to be discovered as it pertains to the playoffs. Yesterday’s victory in Vancouver assured the Kings of participation in the postseason. It also assured that the Kings will not be the second wild card team when all is said and done, as the Kings have officially surpassed the trio of Calgary, Nashville and Winnipeg, who are all battling for that position.

From there, the Kings could finish, well, anywhere else.

Before I dive into the details below, it’s worth saying that these are not numbers that matter to the team, per say. For them, it’s more about what the numbers say and represent than a number itself. It was the same when it came to recent streaks. It’s the quality of hockey that’s important and it’s important to establish momentum and stylistic success heading into the postseason. If the Kings are able to do so, the numbers can take care of themselves.

With that said though, it’s still fun to talk about on an off day, because now that the relief of clinching a playoff spot is behind the Kings, there are five games remaining that will help to shape the playoff picture, not just for the Kings, but for the Pacific Division and the Western Conference as a whole.

The schedule for the Kings sets up as follows –

4/4 vs. EDM
4/6 @ VGK
4/8 vs. COL
4/10 vs. VAN
4/13 @ ANA

With yesterday’s victory, the Kings became the second team in the Western Conference to reach 100 points, behind only the Vegas Golden Knights. The Kings sit one point behind Vegas in the standings, which is currently in possession of both the top seed in the Pacific Division and in the West.

Games against Edmonton tomorrow and Vegas on Thursday will go a long way toward determining how viable the Kings surging past Vegas is, but with that head-to-head matchup still to come, it’s on the table. Those games will also go a long way toward the possibility of home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Currently, the battle for home ice is between the three aforementioned teams – Vegas, Edmonton and Los Angeles – and Seattle, which holds a puncher’s chance in fourth.

Per Tankathon, which analyzes strength of schedule, Vegas has the hardest schedule of the four and the fourth-hardest schedule in the league. The Golden Knights play all six of their remaining games against teams currently in the playoff race and face a trip East for a back-to-back against Minnesota and Nashville. Next is the Kings, who have four of their final five in Southern California, followed by the Oilers and Kraken, who both have two games left against playoff-bound teams and the remainder of their schedule (EDM – 3, SEA – 5) against teams out of the mix. That order also coincides with the standings, meaning this could be a race that goes down to the wire, regardless of what happens this coming week with a pair of four-point games.

All letters and numbers though. Games are played on the ice and that will determine how the Pacific ultimately shapes up.

With a playoff berth behind them, a new set of magic numbers arises. Magic numbers become weird when you’re chasing a team, but regarding Seattle and Edmonton, the numbers are very clear.

Seattle – 5
Edmonton – 10

The Kings would officially lock themselves into a top-three spot in the Pacific Division with five points over their final four games. The number says ten regarding Edmonton, which would mean winning their final five games without any help, but the Kings and Oilers play tomorrow night, which is a three or four-point game as far as that magic number is concerned. A big one tomorrow for the Kings when it comes to securing home-ice advantage.

As it pertains to Vegas, the Kings number to achieve would be 14, which is naturally more than the Kings can earn from their remaining five games. Again, the two teams play each other on Thursday, a game that’s worth more than just two, but even with a Kings victory at T-Mobile Arena, the Kings would need at least a bit of help from Vegas in order to potentially earn the top seed.

Also worth a mention, while I’ve got your attention……hey, that rhymes! The Kings are also in pursuit of some historic franchise totals when it comes to regular-season performance.

Sitting on 45 wins and 100 points, the Kings are three wins and five points from tying franchise records in those respective categories. Four wins or six points from the remaining five games would put the 2022-23 Kings in sole possession of a franchise record in those columns. The 2015-16 Kings won 48 games, while the 1974-75 Kings are the team to beat when it comes to points. The 74-75 squad also holds the franchise record for the best winning percentage in a single season, at .656. The current group has the second-best mark at .649, and would need to amass eight or more points to take that crown.

Pretty incredible when you think about it. On December 13, the Kings had 15 wins from 32 games played, sitting at 15-12-5. From that point on, only the Boston Bruins have had a better winning percentage than the Kings, who have wins from 30 of 45 games since and points from 35. Not too shabby, Insiders.

Day off today for the team and a well-deserved one. Back on the ice for morning skate tomorrow in El Segundo, before taking on the Oilers on ESPN later in the evening. Currently, the Kings have four players impacted by injury – Mikey Anderson, Alex Edler, Kevin Fiala and Gabriel Vilardi. Seeing questions on that group and assume we’ll see some form of update come the morning, as the Kings prepare for the divisional showdown. Full game coverage to follow tomorrow. Enjoy the day, Insiders!!