The Kings returned home after a licking in the Lone Star State, ready to start a three-game residency with back-to-back matches in which they’ll host the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday and the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday.
They could get a shot in the arm from the return of injured winger Viktor Arvidsson (lower-body), who has dressed in only four games this season, all of which have been victories for the Kings. Multiple reports from practice indicated that Arvidsson had shed his non-contact jersey and joined the fourth line for rushes, with Jim Hiller telling reporters that Arvidsson was “close.”
Sans Arvidsson, they fell 4-1 to the Dallas Stars on Saturday, who completed a clean sweep of the season series against the Kings and outscored them 13-3 in the process.
While center Phillip Danault acknowledged that the Kings hadn’t “played [well] against that team at all,” that struggle was only the most salient in a series of uphill climbs against the seven presently postseason-bound teams in the West. They won’t face any of those clubs during this homestand, which will conclude with their final game against an Eastern Conference opponent this season when they confront the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
The Kings already lost their season series not only to Dallas but also to the Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights and Nashville Predators. Those three franchises took two of three meetings from the Kings. They’ve also dropped two of three showdowns with the Edmonton Oilers, with one more clash to come. Their season series with the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks, which they’ve split so far, have one game and two games remaining, respectively.
Against those seven clubs currently in playoff position, the Kings have gone 6-10-3 overall, representing a .395 points percentage and a .316 win percentage. Dallas improved to 10-6-4 against the same septet of teams, a .600 points percentage. More broadly speaking, since the Kings last won a playoff series, the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, each of the seven clubs has advanced beyond Round 1, six have gone to the conference finals, four have reached the Stanley Cup Final and two have kissed the Cup as champions.
But the Kings’ next opponent, Chicago, is about as far from a contender as one could find, possessing the NHL’s second fewest points. The Kings knocked them back to earth with a wallop on Friday in a 5-0 win that came after the ‘Hawks had strung together high-scoring victories over the Ducks and Arizona Coyotes. They’ve since beaten the even lowlier San Jose Sharks in their most recent outing.
Even including the Kings’ shutout, Calder Trophy favorite Connor Bedard has piled up four goals, six assists and 10 points in his past four games.
Minnesota is led by 2021’s Calder winner, Kirill Kaprizov. Kaprizov has put up a point per game against the Kings, which is hardly novel for the Russian winger, who has averaged that or better against 22 of the NHL’s other 31 franchises.
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While the Wild meandered through much of the season, they’ve tied for the fourth best points percentage in the league since the All-Star break, despite Saturday’s overtime loss to St. Louis, the other team still attempting to catch the Western playoff pack. Kaprizov tied Edmonton winger Zach Hyman for the most goals since the pause, sat one point behind Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon for second in points since play resumed and was just leapfrogged for that span’s power-play points lead by St. Louis forward Robert Thomas, who scored two man-advantage markers in the third period against the Ducks on Sunday.
The Kings will play Minnesota again in the penultimate game of their campaign on April 15 before closing out the regular season against Chicago on April 18. These are also two rosters against whom the largely underwhelming Pierre-Luc Dubois has had success. Nearly half of his 31 total points have come in seven multi-point games, including the initial meetings with both Chicago on Friday and Minnesota on Oct. 19