{"id":272287,"date":"2026-04-17T08:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272287\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:12:14","slug":"kings-vs-avalanche-and-ducks-vs-oilers-face-tough-first-round-task-in-nhl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272287\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings (vs. Avalanche) and Ducks (vs. Oilers) face tough first-round task in NHL playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Kings<\/a> looked nothing like a playoff team heading into the NHL\u2019s trade deadline. They had lost six of their last eight games, had just fired their coach and had saw their second-leading scorer go down with a broken leg in the Olympic tournament.<\/p>\n

They were backing away from the playoffs, not heading toward them. So general manager Ken Holland did the prudent thing and largely stood pat, trading a couple of veterans for draft picks and making only a pair of minor acquisitions. <\/p>\n

Turns out he wasn\u2019t waving a white flag but rather a green one because the Kings<\/a> hit the gas after that, gathering points in 16 of their final 20 games, finishing the regular season as one of the hottest teams in the NHL. That earned them a fifth straight trip to the playoffs and a first-round meeting with the Colorado Avalanche, the league\u2019s winningest team, beginning Sunday in Denver.<\/p>\n

The Ducks,<\/a> meanwhile, advanced to the postseason for the first time since 2018 but they stumbled in, losing eight of their last 10 and blowing a five-point lead in the Pacific Division and the home-ice advantage that went with it over the final three weeks. The Ducks, the third-place team in the Pacific Division,<\/a> will start on the road in Edmonton on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"Kings <\/p>\n

Kings interim coach D.J. Smith during a game in March in Boston.<\/p>\n

(Charles Krupa \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a climb. Probably didn\u2019t look very good a while ago,\u201d said Kings interim coach D.J. Smith, who could lose the interim part of that title after going 11-6-6 after replacing Jim Hiller behind the bench with 23 games to play. \u201cIt\u2019s a credit to the guys, the leadership. They played playoff hockey for a while now. And it\u2019s allowed us this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, crediting the Kings with playing playoff hockey isn\u2019t necessarily a compliment since the team hasn\u2019t won a postseason series since hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2014. But it\u2019s been more than a decade since the Kings have entered the playoffs carrying this kind of momentum and they have a few people to thank for that.<\/p>\n

\"Anton <\/p>\n

Anton Forsberg has been key for the Kings down the stretch.<\/p>\n

(Ronald Martinez \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Journeyman goaltender Anton Forsberg, who spent most of his first season in Los Angeles backing up Darcy Kuemper, won five straight starts in April to key the Kings\u2019 fast finish. Russian winger Artemi Panarin, acquired from the New York Rangers just before the Olympic break and a month before the trade deadline, contributed nine goals and 18 assists in 26 games, helping make up for the loss of forwards Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko to injuries. And Quinton Byfield scored 10 times in his final 13 games to set a career high with 24 goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the break I feel like we\u2019ve really come together as a group,\u201d Byfield said.<\/p>\n

The team displayed uncommon grit as well, going to overtime an NHL-record 33 times. (They lost 20 of those games; if they have gotten the second point in just a third of those, they would have won the division.)<\/p>\n

And finally, the Kings were also fueled by a desire to give captain Anze Kopitar one more chance at a title. Kopitar, who announced in September that this season would be his last, gave an emotional good-bye speech to the fans after the final regular-season home game. His teammates were determined to give him an encore in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat had a lot to do with it,\u201d Smith said. \u201cGuys were playing for him. He gets one more chance to play at home. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe found a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kopitar, however, credited his coach for the team\u2019s fast finish. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Smithy came in, he just changed the energy a little bit and we\u2019re trying to be a little more aggressive versus sitting back,\u201d said Kopitar, the Kings\u2019 all-time leader in games, points and assists.<\/p>\n

\"Anaheim <\/p>\n

Cutter Gauthier is the first Duck to score 40 goals in a season since Corey Perry in 2013-14.<\/p>\n

(Melissa Majchrzak \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

For the Ducks<\/a>, they\u2019re not only returning to the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons \u2014 only the Detroit Red Wings have a longer active postseason drought \u2014 but they also posted a winning record for the first time since 2018.<\/p>\n

Troy Terry, who played two games as a rookie that season, is the only Duck remaining from that team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year has just felt different from the start,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was less question marks about the potential of the team. We knew what we could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which isn\u2019t to say it\u2019s been easy. The team had two seven-game winning streaks but also weathered losing streaks of nine and six games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a couple of roller coasters there, starting and then slowing down and getting back on it,\u201d said coach Joel Quenneville, who has taken five teams to the NHL playoffs, winning three Stanley Cups in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The Ducks\u2019 273 goals this season are the most in franchise history but the 288 they allowed is third-worst all time, leaving the team with the second-highest goal differential of any playoff team. (Only the Kings are worse at -22.)<\/p>\n

Speaking of history, winger Cutter Gauthier, with 18 goals in the final 23 games, is the first Duck to score 40 goals in a season since Corey Perry in 2013-14. At 22, he\u2019s also the second-youngest to get there, trailing only Paul Kariya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kings looked nothing like a playoff team heading into the NHL\u2019s trade deadline. They had lost six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[23797,6264,118094,42921,9831,423,2194,118091,664,118093,48,52,51,47,50,49,118092,1605,8841,1417,11369],"class_list":{"0":"post-272287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-ducks","10":"tag-fast-finish","11":"tag-first-season","12":"tag-first-time","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-goal","15":"tag-hot-team","16":"tag-king","17":"tag-kopitar","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-headlines","20":"tag-la-news","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-nhl-playoff","25":"tag-pacific-division","26":"tag-playoff","27":"tag-point","28":"tag-quinton-byfield"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}