The Colorado Avalanche are locked into their playoff position with two games left in the regular season, and that’s good news for the Los Angeles Kings.
Colorado’s 4-1 loss to Vancouver on Thursday night finalized a matchup with the Dallas Stars in the first round, which means there’s nothing on the line this weekend. It also means coach Jared Bednar is resting some of his top players in Saturday’s game at Los Angeles.
The Kings don’t have the luxury of relaxing with four games left in their season. Los Angeles (45-24-9, 99 points) has a slim lead over Edmonton (45-28-5, 95 points) for second place in the Pacific Division and home ice in a likely first-round matchup.
The Kings have played well over the past month, winning 13 of their last 17 games heading into Saturday’s matchup with the Avalanche. The danger is overlooking Colorado with a road game at Edmonton on Monday night.
Los Angeles’ surge coincided with the acquisition of left winger Andrei Kuzmenko from Philadelphia at the trade deadline. Kuzmenko has played on the top line with center Anze Kopitar and right wing Adrian Kempe, and the trio has clicked. In Thursday night’s 6-1 win over Anaheim, Kopitar had a goal and an assist and Kuzmenko and Kempe had three assists each.
The line has combined for 18 goals and 29 assists in the 18 games since the trade.
Kuzmenko has five goals and nine assists with the Kings. Kempe leads Los Angeles in scoring with 67 points (33 goals, 34 assists) and Kopitar is second with 64 points (20 goals, 44 assists).
“It took a few games to kind of understand how Kuzy plays. But they’re dangerous,” Kings director of player development Glen Murray said recently. “This guy is uber-talented. He can make plays all over the ice and it’s fun to watch. The enthusiasm that Kuzy has for the game, it just oozes out and it goes in Kempe and Kopi.”
For the Avalanche (48-28-4, 100 points), leading scorer Nathan MacKinnon, who has 116 points (32 goals, 84 assists), didn’t play Thursday night and is going to sit against Los Angeles and Anaheim on Sunday night. Bednar said MacKinnon is dealing with a minor injury.
Defensemen Cale Makar, Devon Toews and Ryan Lindgren are also likely to sit, at least for one game, and other top forwards are candidates for rest.
Colorado recalled forward Jere Innala and defensemen Wyatt Aamodt and Jack Ahcan from the AHL on Friday. Jonathan Drouin, who has missed the last four games with a lower-body injury, could play at least one of the two games this weekend.
The Avalanche had a chance to overtake Dallas for home ice in their first-round series, but the odds were slim and rest was more important than beating the Canucks.
“I look in years past going into playoffs,” said Makar, who is second on the team in scoring with 92 points (30 goals, 62 assists). “Down the stretch, obviously you want to feel confident in your game, but at the same time you can’t look at the wins and losses like that.”
–Field Level Media
