Philadelphia is six points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
“It’s not like we’re doing anything that much different than we’ve been doing the whole year,” Konecny said. “Sometimes it’s just a bounce here and there, and we’re just playing hard and sticking to it. And there’s nothing else we can do than win games right now.”
Panarin also had an assist and extended his point streak to four games, and Anze Kopitar and Quinton Byfield scored for the Kings (28-24-16), who are 4-3-2 since Jim Hiller was fired on March 6. Darcy Kuemper made 17 saves.
Los Angeles is one point ahead of the Seattle Kraken and Nashville Predators, and two ahead of the San Jose Sharks, for the second wild card from the Western Conference.
“I mean, you got to just keep clawing at points,” Smith said. “You lose in a shootout, you know, what are you going? At the end of the day, I think, the game for us, the point that was lost was in the second period. First and third, you know, the way we want to play. I thought the chances that we gave up tonight aren’t the way that we’ve been playing.”
Byfield put the Kings ahead 1-0 at 19:31 of the first period on a wrist shot from the right circle. He has three points (one goal, two assists) in his past two games following a five-game drought.