{"id":603222,"date":"2026-04-14T10:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/603222\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T10:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:46:08","slug":"kings-round-out-stanley-cup-playoffs-field-with-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/603222\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings round out Stanley Cup Playoffs field with win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The final three days of the NHL regular season will be reserved for playoff jockeying.<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"sn-team-post-link\" data-team=\"los-angeles-kings\" data-league=\"nhl\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/teams\/los-angeles-kings\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Los Angeles Kings<\/a> locked up the final spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 5-3 road win over the Seattle Kraken on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings charged into the playoffs after promoting former assistant coach D.J. Smith to interim head coach at the start of March following the firing of Jim Hiller.<\/p>\n<p>It will be Smith&#8217;s first appearance in the playoffs as a head coach after he didn&#8217;t make it during four-plus seasons with the Ottawa Senators.<\/p>\n<p>It marks the fifth consecutive playoff appearance for the Kings, who have lost to the Edmonton Oilers in the first round the past four years. A rematch with the Oilers is still possible, depending on how seeding in the Pacific Division shakes out.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings haven&#8217;t won a playoff series since they captured the Stanley Cup in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Saturday with all games on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+. <\/p>\n<p>Here are this year&#8217;s playoff teams, with final seeding still to be determined.<\/p>\n<p>EASTERN CONFERENCE<br \/>Atlantic Division<br \/>Buffalo Sabres<br \/>Montreal Canadiens<br \/>Tampa Bay Lightning<br \/>Metropolitan Division<br \/>Carolina Hurricanes<br \/>Pittsburgh Penguins<br \/>Philadelphia Flyers<br \/>Wild Card<br \/>Boston Bruins<br \/>Ottawa Senators<\/p>\n<p>WESTERN CONFERENCE<br \/>Central Division<br \/>Colorado Avalanche<br \/>Dallas Stars<br \/>Minnesota Wild<br \/>Pacific Division<br \/>Vegas Golden Knights<br \/>Edmonton Oilers<br \/>Anaheim Ducks<br \/>Wild Card<br \/>Utah Mammoth<br \/>Los Angeles Kings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final three days of the NHL regular season will be reserved for playoff jockeying. The Los Angeles&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-603222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}