\u2014 Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) January 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n How the Ducks and Kings arrived here is different. Anaheim is powered by exciting young stars and living with the growing pains that come with trying to level up after digging out of a tunnel of losing. Los Angeles is doggedly clinging to a defense-first system that keeps it in virtually every game but lacks the kind of game-changing talents who can put opponents away.<\/p>\n Perhaps it is no surprise that the Ducks have swung between the high of a fast 11-3-1 start and the low of a 2-11-2 stretch that included a recent nine-game winless streak. Or the Kings not having any kind of streak, not going more than two games without gaining a point but also not winning more than two straight outside of one four-game stretch in November.<\/p>\n It is also no surprise that both Freeway Faceoff games went beyond 60 minutes, with the Kings playing into overtime a league-leading 20 times and the Ducks now possessing 10 their 24 wins through the extra session or the shootout. That won\u2019t change as they head toward the Olympic break and a playoff push through March and April.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at some different teams in our conference specifically, they\u2019ve all had their highs and maybe their lows,\u201d Kings coach Jim Hiller said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s gone through that. We haven\u2019t yet hit our high. That\u2019s where I look at the standings. We\u2019ve had our lows, we\u2019ve had a lot of mushy middle. We haven\u2019t had our high yet, and I think some of the other teams have kind of \u2014 they\u2019ve gone through a little bit more. Their highs have been higher than ours.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to get ours. And it\u2019s just another way of saying the same thing. We need to get a turn, but I don\u2019t see anybody running away with this thing at all. That\u2019s my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n Some separation is occurring as the Vegas Golden Knights have won seven in a row to take control of the Pacific and with the Edmonton Oilers in tow, the two division favorites finally looking like such. That leaves the Kings and Ducks in a battle to claim two of the West\u2019s playoff berths as the Colorado-Dallas-Minnesota triumvirate have the Central locked down and Utah is surging to pin down the first wild card.<\/p>\n The Ducks picked up all four possible points by winning 3-2 in a shootout Friday in L.A. and then taking a 2-1 rematch Saturday at home on Mikael Granlund\u2019s overtime strike. We\u2019ll get to the weekend\u2019s difference-making standout, Anaheim\u2019s precocious rookie Beckett Sennecke, much more in an upcoming article. While the Ducks (24-21-3) have pulled out of their tailspin with three straight victories, the Kings (19-16-13) continue to run in place with just one win in seven since beating the Minnesota Wild in back-to-back home games.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much parity in this league,\u201d Kings forward Warren Foegele said. \u201cPoints are crucial, and we didn\u2019t get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t an empty Freeway Faceoff for the Kings, but they\u2019re increasingly feeling that way despite the point collected in each game. They sounded like a team worn down, with their No. 31-ranked offense unable to ease the stress of constant nail-biters. The plainspoken Foegele, with an answer to a question of what is missing escaping him, added, \u201cI didn\u2019t think we would keep being in the same situation every game.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kings do have bodies missing, with captain Anze Kopitar sidelined the last seven games, left wing Trevor Moore out for the last 10 and Corey Perry intermittently away from the team as he tends to family health concerns back home in London, Ontario. But so do the Ducks, with No. 1 center Leo Carlsson unavailable through the Olympic break<\/a> and second-leading scorer Troy Terry on injured reserve. Chris Kreider also missed his second straight game, while Frank Vatrano continues to recover from a shoulder fracture.<\/p>\n Before Saturday\u2019s game, Hiller tackled the subject of needing more from the Kings\u2019 best players. He acknowledged that even if they\u2019re mostly playing the sound, responsible hockey they\u2019ve long championed, it isn\u2019t enough to bring them wins. \u201cEverybody\u2019s got to do a little bit more of what they do, and that\u2019ll get us turned around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Adrian Kempe did get their goal Saturday, a clean finish on a five-on-three advantage as the Ducks blazed a path to the penalty box in the second period. But it isn\u2019t much coincidence that it was his first goal during the Kings\u2019 current losing spell. (Going 1-2-4 over the last seven might define this season). The Kings had every chance to clean up after a rough first 20 minutes but couldn\u2019t cash in on any of their other five power plays, all in the second 20.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we were as fluid as we wanted to be in that situation,\u201d said Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke, whose strong overall play earned him a promotion to the top unit. \u201cThey kept taking penalties and kept giving us another chance to kind of redeem ourselves. It just didn\u2019t seem fluid. It didn\u2019t seem like we were getting pucks to the net. That\u2019s unfortunate. We have really skilled guys out there who are really smart, that knows what it takes to get it done, but it\u2019s unfortunate in that second. Whether it was just not connecting or just whatever it may be, not having that shot mentality, it\u2019s unfortunate we couldn\u2019t capitalize more.\u201d<\/p>\n More observations from the weekend battle between the archrivals:<\/p>\n Others rose in the absences of key Ducks personnel<\/p>\n Carlsson\u2019s surgery to address a lesion in his thigh could help explain his slump after a brilliant start to his third season. Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said he didn\u2019t know how long his center was dealing with the injury but revealed that it \u201cprogressively got worse\u201d and that they were able to nail down the diagnosis before he underwent the procedure Friday.<\/p>\n
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