Just as the Kings began to close the gap between their home and road schedules, they had a home game postponed Wednesday ahead of a back-to-back set that will kick off a five-game road trip Friday.
It was a challenge to focus on the ice with fires raging around the Los Angeles area, which led to Wednesday’s postponement.
“In my 20 years here, I’ve never seen anything even remotely close. Yeah, there are fires but not in a populated area where people are losing lives and losing houses and pretty much everything that they’ve worked for in their entire life,” captain Anže Kopitar told reporters. “Obviously, thoughts and prayers with everybody that has lost a loved one. It’s extremely hard, hopefully this gets under control fairly quickly.”
After an unexpectedly long break of five days, the Kings will face the Winnipeg Jets before traveling to Calgary for a meeting with the Flames on Saturday. They were slated to play Calgary at home Wednesday in a match that will be made up later in the season. They’ll have four divisional games on their journey: in addition to Calgary, they’ll visit Edmonton, Vancouver and Seattle.
Home/road splits have been stark for the Kings this season, and not just in terms of games played.
At Crypto.com Arena, they’ve compiled a points percentage 43 ticks higher than that of any other team (.853). On the road, their .524 mark is right around the league median.
Power-play disparity has been even more drastic. They’ve connected on 23.1% of their 39 man-advantage opportunities in 17 home games, placing them just outside the top 10 league-wide. But in 21 road games and 55 chances, they’ve cashed in just 10.9%, the second-worst rate in hockey.
Their penalty kill has actually been significantly better on the road, tying for third in the NHL (84.3%), whereas at home they’re near the middle of the pack (80%). That’s come in handy, too, since they’ve been shorthanded 3.33 times per game on the road but averaged 2.65 penalty kills at home.
In their only prior meeting with the Jets this season, Kopitar converted on the power play, matching the effort of former King Gabe Vilardi, whose extra-man marker represented all of Winnipeg’s scoring. In that affair, the Kings put on a 4-1 clinic at Crypto.com Arena on Nov. 27 that was perhaps their most convincing victory of the campaign to date.
Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck became the third-fastest NHL netminder to reach 300 career wins with Tuesday’s victory over Nashville. Kyle Connor has been Winnipeg’s pace car offensively, leading the team in points (53) and tying Mark Scheifele in goals (23).
Winnipeg, which also features former Kings Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari, has spent much of the campaign perched atop the NHL. The Jets have jockeyed primarily with the Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals.
The Kings fell to the Flames in their lone meeting so far, a 3-1 loss at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Nov. 11 in which Calgary captain Mikael Backlund notched a goal and an assist.
Calgary most recently eked past the Ducks, 3-2 in overtime, behind a goal and an assist from MacKenzie Weegar. The reloaded Flames, who reconfigured their roster with a series of trades in the 2024 calendar year, have had a one-step-forward-one-step back season.
They had two game four-game win streaks, but two four-game funks to render them a wash. They’ve neither won nor lost more than two consecutive games outside of those stints. Former Junior King Dustin Wolf has given them their best shot, posting a 13-6-2 record, including Tuesday’s victory over the Ducks.
Kings at Winnipeg
When: 5 p.m. PT Friday
Where: Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg
TV: FDSNW
Kings at Calgary
When: 7 p.m. PT Saturday
Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary
TV: FDSNW