The Los Angeles Kings enter Tuesday’s contest on a dominant run at home, while the New York Rangers battle for survival in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.
While the Kings are seeking their seventh straight home win and to extend their home point streak to 15 games, the Rangers are attempting to stay afloat in the wild-card race Tuesday night when the teams get together in Los Angeles.
The Kings (39-21-9, 87 points) are trying to earn home-ice advantage over the Edmonton Oilers while also attempting to close a five-point gap with the Vegas Golden Knights atop the Pacific Division. Los Angeles is helping both causes thanks to a dominant stretch that has seen them go 11-0-3 on home ice since its last regulation home loss on Jan. 20 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Los Angeles saw its home dominance continue with a pair of impressive 7-2 victories over the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins in a weekend back-to-back set. On Sunday against Boston, 16 players recorded a point and the night before 13 players notched at least one point.
“It’s impressive,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said after the Kings scored seven goals on consecutive days for the third time in team history. “That one, I think, we share with everybody, with our fans, with the city.”
Adrian Kempe scored Saturday and then assisted on goals by Anze Kopitar and Andrei Kuzmenko on Sunday when the Kings allowed the first goal 19 seconds into the contest and scored the final five goals.
Kempe is on the verge of his third 30-goal season and has four goals and seven assists during the home points streak.
Kopitar scored in both games and has five goals over his past 11 contests. Quentin Byfield also scored in both games, giving him eight goals in his past 10 contests along with goals in seven straight home games.
Byfield and Kempe also scored while Kopitar registered two assists when the Kings rolled to a 5-1 rout in New York on Dec. 14.
New York’s lopsided defeat to the Kings was part of its 4-15-0 skid that knocked them out of playoff contention. The Rangers (34-31-6, 74 points) are 18-13-5 since that skid but also 10-11-2 since their 10-game points streak Jan. 5-23.
New York avoided its second four-game losing streak this month by coming alive in the third period following a lackluster opening 40 minutes in a 5-3 home win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday afternoon.
The Rangers were outshot 39-12 but scored four times in the third by getting two goals from Jonny Brodzinski, a tally by K’Andre Miller and an empty-net goal by J.T. Miller.
“It was kind of a mixed bag,” said J.T. Miller, who was goalless in his previous nine games. “They probably outplayed us for most of the game today, but we stuck with it. I thought our best period was in the third period. You definitely don’t want to give up that many after you give up the lead, what, three times? We’ll take the points this time of year though.”
The Rangers had one shot on goal through the first period and tied their season low for shots on goal. It was the second time in three games they were held under 15 shots and seventh time in 10 games they were held under 25 shots.
–Field Level Media
