With the season hanging in the balance, the Kings know what needs to be done, one game at a time

Hit ‘em with your best cliché.

Backs against the wall, one game at a time, all the pressure is on them, etc, etc.

Phillip Danault used a few of them after Game 4, as the Kings faced questions for the first time about being one game away from elimination.

Over the last two days, we’ve started to hear those phrases a bit more, because it’s what the players are trying to focus on.

It is also about carrying over the Game 4 effort and performance into Game 5, certainly. Game 4 established the blueprint of the way the Kings want to play the game in this series. It wasn’t the result, it wasn’t the offensive output, but it was the style of hockey they believe can bring them back in this series.

Now, it’s about one game to extend the season. While we’re looking at the mountain to be climbed of three wins needed to get to four, you can’t win three games tomorrow night. It’s just the one and until it’s not. That’s the focus.

“Obviously you don’t want to be put in this position, but I think when your back is against the wall, you learn what you’re really made of,” forward Trevor Lewis said this morning. “I know we’ve got the character and the leadership in this group to do it. We’ve just got to take it one shift, one period and one game at a time.”

For what it’s worth, Lewis is a guy who would know.

He, Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty were a part of the team in 2014 that came back from three games down to win that series over San Jose.

As Kopitar said today, though, that was 10 years ago. Different time, different team, different place. And that’s fair.

What could be the same, perhaps, is the mentality and the approach used to extend a series. Nobody remembers the teams that go down 3-1 in a series and lose. When you drop three of the first four, the expectation is that you won’t win the series, because beating a team three times in a row is very challenging. The percentage of teams trailing 3-1 in a series coming back to win is under 10. Even if you remove the teams that wind up losing in five, history says less than 1 in 4 have also won Games 6 and 7. It’s difficult stuff, but as Lewis said, that’s the position the Kings are in.

It’s been done, though, in exactly one series over each of the last three seasons. Four Kings on this team have done it once in their respective careers, with Danault a part of a Montreal group that achieved the feat in 2021, on top of the those with the 2014 Kings. Cam Talbot’s Minnesota Wild forced a Game 7 in a similar situation that same year playing against Vegas.

For Kopitar, Doughty and Lewis, the team is different and the situation is different. For Danault or Talbot, the logo on the jersey is different. The mentality and the approach, though, is something that can remain the same.

“We’ve just got to go and play our game, really, it’s win or go home,” Kopitar said. “Play desperate, with emotion, with discipline and go from there.”

If you ask Jim Hiller, you don’t need the clichés. Just go out there and play. In a lot of ways, that stands to reason.

The Kings believe in the game they played on Sunday. They truly do. And I understand the skepticism, in hearing that after a shutout defeat, with the season on the line. Within the room, though, they felt there’s now a proof of concept and now they’re simply trying to execute it again.

“Let’s go play, let’s go up to Edmonton and play, let’s play the same game, let’s improve a few areas and let’s bring it back here,” Hiller said. “I don’t know if you even need cliches, it’s just pretty straightforward.”

Doughty said this morning that he’s “the most confident he’s been in this series” with how the team played in Game 4. While that San Jose series was 10 years ago, Doughty admitted he thought about Game 3 in that series, when the Kings lost in overtime, but clearly found their game, carrying it through the next four and beyond.

Now, the Kings are looking to make a similar pivot, though it’s only a turning point if you actually make the turn.

If the Kings don’t build upon their performance in Game 4 and bring that approach to Edmonton then the thought process is for naught. If they can, though, maybe there’s something still to be said from this group. You don’t usually recognize what the lightbulb moment was until after the fact. It’s easy to see upon reflection, but usually harder in the present. For the Kings, they believe that Game 4 can be that moment.

“We took a big step last game in the way we played,” Lewis said. “I think we have that same mindset going into next game, that would be a big confidence boost for us.”

It’s one thing to play the right way once, but it’s another to replicate a similar performance that saw the Kings contain arguably the NHL’s two best forwards in a way they hadn’t before.

We’ve heard a number of areas thrown out as to why.

Trevor Moore said the Kings “played as five” and felt the forwards tracked well, with Hiller complementing the play of the F3 as it pertained to tracking back. Kopitar spoke about the puck possession the Kings had, which is backed by the numbers, as the Kings controlled shot attempts by a 75 – 38 margin. Lewis hammered home the importance of the start, which was an area of focus coming in, as he felt the Kings “came in waves” off the opening puck drop and it was something they maintained throughout the game.

It’s a combination of all of those things that led to what the team believed was a good showing.

“We’ve just got to make sure that we’re pushing, that we’re taking a step forward and not giving them anything that they don’t create on their own,” Hiller added. “Just trying to re-establish what our game was in Game 4.”

That’s where it begins for the Kings.

Re-establishing the game they played on Sunday and going from there. I’m not going to sit here and say it’ll happen, because we’ve seen an inconsistent group this season. One of the reasons I think there was so much optimism around a game the Kings lost 1-0 was that, stylistically, the team played in a way we have not seen enough of this season, and certainly not with enough consistency. But it is in there. And, regardless of what the math says, regardless of how likely it might be for an inconsistent group to deliver four consecutive and consistent performances, there is a belief within in doing so. Above all else, if they believe in the room, then that’s all a team needs at this point in the season.

A season that is on the line tomorrow night, with nothing short of their best showing keeping the season alive.