The Kings head back home after playing seven of their last nine games on the road, where they will look for answers and confidence.
The Kings' season will be defined not only by how they perform in their last 10 games but also by their seven-game home stand starting Saturday, during which they've been inconsistent all season, posting a 10-16-8 record.
On Thursday, the silver and black closed out its three-game road trip away from Crypto.com Arena with a win over the Vancouver Canucks to snap their four-game losing streak. It was a great bounce-back win, considering how awful the Kings looked this past week, going 4-2-4 in their last 10 games and losing four overtime games.
Across those 10 games, the Kings faced a myriad of challenges that have been plaguing them consistently this season. The struggle to close out games in overtime, blowing leads in the final period, second-period breakdowns, and being mediocre defensively on most nights.
"You’ve got to be able to just play the exact same game for 60 minutes," interim head coach D.J. Smith said on closing out games. "You don’t need to be playing high risk or whatever in the last 10 minutes. For whatever reason, we haven’t been able to close games out. We didn’t have the lead, it’s tied, but I don’t like us giving up a 2-on-1 with under 10 minutes to go, off a kind of broken play."
Los Angeles found no solution to those weaknesses in their time away from home, where they've actually been much better on the road. And they are now playing every game like it's a must-win playoff scenario because of how close the standings remain.
And even though we saw the Kings play magnificently on Thursday, arguably one of their most impressive complete games in a long time on offense and defense, it was against the worst team in hockey, so that win didn't mean much.
The offense isn't the problem; Los Angeles has been able to score and compete in all these games. It's the defense and goaltending that can't hold onto their leads. The defense needs to step up in the final stretch of the regular season, particularly Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin, who need to help out Drew Doughty and Joel Edmundson.
The goaltending has been a separate issue for the Kings. At times, Darcy Kuemper looks like the definitive starter on the crease, but other times, he looks like he should be on the bench instead of Anton Forsberg, who has played very well when he's been the starter, not Kuemper, this season, primarily due to Kuemper's injuries this year.
In the final 10 games of the season, seven will be at home, starting on Saturday against Utah, and the final three will be on the road against Vancouver, Calgary, and Seattle. A lot of these games will be must-win situations, considering how close the standings are and the tiebreakers that the Kings still need to take care of.
Los Angeles needs to go at least 7-3 in those 10 games or, at worst, 6-4 if they want a chance to make the postseason. Right now, with 76 points, the Kings are one point behind Nashville for the final playoff spot and three points behind Vegas for the third seed in the Pacific Division.
So it's still very possible for Los Angeles to make the playoffs because the teams in their division keep losing, and they need to capitalize on that. The best scenario would be to avoid Colorado in the first round and get a more favorable first-round matchup where anything is possible in a tightly contested division.
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.