The Los Angeles Kings are enjoying the home cooking as they are on a 14-home-game point streak. For much of the season, they have trailed the Edmonton Oilers in the standings. However, they were able to keep pace with the Oilers because of how they played on home ice.
The Kings are one of the best home teams in the NHL, with a record of 25-3-4. Over the last two games, they have scored 14 goals in back-to-back 7-2 wins over the Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes. Meanwhile, the Kings are 14-18-5 on the road this season. That is why it is important for them to get home-ice advantage when they play the Edmonton Oilers again in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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The Oilers and Kings will probably play for the fourth year in a row in the playoffs. Edmonton has had home ice every time and won every time. Though the Kings had chances, they did not get a save. But this time, with the way they are playing at Crypto.com Arena, the series against the Oilers could be a little different.
As Dave Pagnotta stated when he was on his weekly segment on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick, he mentioned that the goal for the Kings is to get home ice advantage but also continue to play the right way.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Scott Laughlin: “Hey, Dave, I think we’d all agree that home ice wouldn’t mean as much, excuse me, to a team like Vegas or Edmonton as it would to a team like Los Angeles and the Kings, by virtue of this 14 game home ice point streak, have put themselves into second in the Pacific. They’ve also got a game in hand on the Edmonton Oilers, and they’re 25-3-4 on home ice.
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Like, don’t you think, Dave, that if Los Angeles is ever going to get by the Edmonton Oilers, it might as well be this season, based on how great they’ve been on home ice? But it’s almost imperative, Dave right, that they get home ice in the first place. If they can’t catch Vegas, at least hold on to second because you’d rather start the series versus Edmonton and potentially finish it on home ice at Crypto.com.”
Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, and I think that’s the messaging for the guys in that locker room is to maintain the pace of play and keep going. You’ve got an opportunity here with the Oilers a little bit banged up, even though they won the other night. You’ve got an opportunity here to kind of climb above them and stabilize home ice positioning. They’ve been fantastic. Absolutely lights out at home, as you mentioned.
So if they can keep that going with a little bit of things on their side, with the right play, the right performance that they’ve got, it’s going to be very important. And, yeah, I know, we know that they played each other in the playoffs the last, whatever it seems like, 15 seasons. But with how things are lining up, with the messaging for that team, yeah, absolutely, they’ve been absolutely lights out at home. You want to keep that going.
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And the schedule makers make it tough on the Kings, usually almost every year, because of so much going on in Crypto in the first half of the season, they’re reaping a little bit of the whole life’s benefits now.
Sometimes, we see teams struggle on home ice, like the New Jersey Devils, when they are at home for long stretches of time. The fact that the Los Angeles Kings are doing so well on home ice shows how valuable home ice still is in the playoffs. Los Angeles feeds off the crowd and is never out of any game.
The messaging has been clear from head coach Jim Hiller since the preseason: play the game the right way, and you will be rewarded. Well, if the Kings can close out the season strong, they could end up with a home-ice advantage against the Oilers.”
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