The Kings are currently one of the NHL’s most torrid teams and in this weekend’s back-to-back set they’ll face its hottest club, and one of its coldest as well, when they welcome the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon and the Boston Bruins on Sunday evening.
Carolina has won eight consecutive games and nine of its past 10, while Boston has been in a freefall that’s seen it trade its captain while losing four in a row and seven of of its past nine.
For the Kings’ part, they’ve won six of seven games, including four one-goal wins and a fifth against the Blackhawks on Thursday that was just as tight before they added an empty-netter. Their only loss, a 3-1 squeaker with an empty-net goal allowed, was to the Wild in St. Paul on Tuesday.
“I mean, six of seven, you’re not going to complain, right? The Minnesota game was close right to the end, close, again, that’s how we’ve played them, and they’re close games,” coach Jim Hiller told reporters after Thursday’s 3-1 win in Chicago. “They take a lot of energy and mental stress, mental concentration. That’s what it’s going to be like in the playoffs, so hopefully we just continue that moving forward.”
In Chicago, the Kings got two goals inside of one minute during the first period, but didn’t find the back of the net again until Joel Edmundson’s heave entered the vacated cage.
Three of Carolina’s eight consecutive victories have been one-goal games, plus a fourth that was a two-goal affair with an empty-netter. In their most recent outing, they beat the Sharks in San Jose behind a marker from former King Sean Walker. An assist on that goal by trade acquisition Taylor Hall extended his points streak to four games and Seth Jarvis’ goal stretched his surge to six matches.
While the Kings made just one acquisition this season, adding the thus-far scoreless Andrei Kuzmenko right at the trade deadline, Carolina made two blockbuster trades involving the same player. First, they acquired Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, but after they were unable to extend the pending free agent, they flipped him again at the deadline to the Dallas Stars for a package arranged around Logan Stankoven.
Boston, on the other hand, sold at the deadline, most notably sending pest extraordinaire and now-former captain Brad Marchand to the defending champion Florida Panthers. Their two Lindholms, defenseman Hampus and center Elias, have not delivered much this season, with Hampus severely limited by injury and Elias underperforming.
After a 6-2 loss in Boston to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Lindholm validated the frustrations of the fans on hand.
“Unacceptable. The fans pay a lot of money to come here and watch us play,” Lindholm said. “They have every right to boo when the effort was like that..”
For the Kings, the tight schedule will likely dictate a split of the two starts in net between scorching Darcy Kuemper, the NHL’s First Star of the Week last week, and David Rittich.
Kuemper has been lights out in his seven more recent appearances, going 5-1-1 with an 0.99 goals-against average, .958 save percentage and two shutouts. Rittich earned a big win against Vegas after a stretch where he’d won just two of 10 decisions, albeit in a game where he allowed five goals and had an .844 save percentage.
Carolina at Kings
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: FDSNW
Boston at Kings
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: FDSNW