The Kings are in danger of coming back from Canada without so much as a lousy T-shirt to show for braving the elements and playing three divisional games in four nights.
They came up with zero of four possible points in their back-to-back set and will close out the trip with a visit to Vancouver to take on the first-place Canucks on Thursday. The teams have yet to meet this season but will familiarize themselves quickly with four meetings in five weeks.
For the Kings, who began the year with designs on a division title and perhaps even a conference crown, running in place as a playoff qualifier has become a more realistic expectation. They sat tied with the Nashville Predators on Wednesday, who dealt the Kings the only loss of their recent three-game homestand, in the two Western Conference wild-card positions.
“It’s playoff hockey until the end. We put ourselves in that position, and we’ve got to live with it,” center Phillip Danault said after Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames.
That defeat mirrored in numerous ways the Kings’ second loss in three meetings this season to archrival Edmonton, which the Oilers handed them on Monday. Both contests were tied 2-2 at the second intermission, though the Kings were fortunate to be in that position against Calgary given the Flames’ dominance of the early going.
The Kings’ power play has been almost as effective as Edmonton’s vaunted units since the All-Star break (the Oilers have ranked sixth in conversion rate, with the Kings placing seventh during that span), but for the second straight contest it failed to come through in a critical situation.
Against Edmonton on Monday, the Kings were, as former coach Todd McLellan was fond of saying, “out-momented” by the Oilers. Case in point, a five-on-three power play and an opportunity to take a commanding lead fell by the wayside for the Kings in the second period. When Edmonton got a garden-variety five-on-four advantage, they took just 13 seconds to cash in, tie the game and set the stage for a dominant final frame in which they put up four high-danger chances to none for the Kings.
In Calgary, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Vladislav Gavrikov were again among the Kings who caused self-inflicted wounds. Then, a late power play, which included a lengthy six-on-four sequence, failed to produce an equalizer. Seconds later, a clearing attempt found its way into the empty net, condemning the Kings to consecutive losses that bore various similarities.
Even more tenuous than their position in the standings and their status ahead of next Friday’s trade deadline is the Kings’ collective health. Top-pairing defenseman Mikey Anderson hit injured reserve, with Viktor Arvidsson, Pheonix Copley and Carl Grundstrom already on long-term IR. Leading scorer Adrian Kempe could soon join them after he appeared to injure his wrist in the dying gasps of the Edmonton game and then returned to California for further evaluation rather than traveling to Calgary. The injury appeared significant, further thinning depth that had already been diminished by the severe consolidation required to acquire Dubois and re-sign Gavrikov this summer.
“(Kempe) is huge for us, and he’s heavy, fast and physical. He does everything,” the Kings’ Quinton Byfield said. “That’s a big guy to miss for us and it showed out there that we need him, but other guys have got to step up, including myself, so it doesn’t feel like we miss him that much.”
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The Kings and Canucks split their previous six meetings, though Vancouver had won six straight before that. Vancouver has been this campaign’s most-improved team as it has accumulated its point total from last season, 83, through just 61 of 82 games this year. J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser are all scoring at a point-per-game pace or better.
Vancouver has already been a buyer at the deadline, adding Elias Lindholm to its forward mix with mixed results. He’s posted six points in 12 games with a minus-five rating thus far. They’ve gone 5-6-1 in those games, allowing the Winnipeg Jets to leapfrog them for the West’s top points percentage.
KINGS AT CANUCKS
When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
Where: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, British Columbia
TV: Bally Sports West