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The Kings will visit the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night with the opportunity to head into the All-Star break as the Pacific Division’s leader.
That matchup is one of the final five NHL games before the break begins Thursday, rolling into the All-Star weekend in Florida. With a victory, the Kings would leapfrog both the second-place Vegas Golden Knights and division-topping Seattle Kraken, neither of whom play again until the regular-season schedule resumes.
The Kings were just in Florida, inching past the Panthers and losing handily to the Tampa Bay Lightning after stumbling out of the starting blocks in the second night of a back-to-back set on Saturday. Still, they’ve earned six of a possible 10 points thus far on a season-long road trip that will wrap up in Raleigh. In its second half alone, the journey pitted them against last year’s Presidents’ Trophy winner, the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions and, now, Carolina, which is on track to win its division for the third straight season.
“There are a few teams in the league that are good teams and favorites, if you will, and we always get good challenges from them along the way,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said.
Kopitar and his linemates have been simmering of late, with the captain producing 11 points in his last dozen games, Adrian Kempe pouring in nine points in as many matches and Quinton Byfield scoring five points in his past eight outings after notching just four in 15 previous appearances. To top it off, No. 1 defenseman Drew Doughty also has nine points in his nine most recent showings.
The Kings continue to be spearheaded offensively by the man that will represent them among the league’s elite at All-Star weekend, winger Kevin Fiala. Fiala has accumulated 17 points in his last 14 games and has sometimes been even more potent than his numbers suggest.
Getting the Kopitar-Kempe duo to click again has been a welcome development, especially as depth scoring has been tested mightily with the absences of Arthur Kaliyev, Trevor Moore and Gabe Vilardi. No firm timeline has been established for their respective returns. However, Kaliyev and Moore have made some progress, and both have been skating on their own since at least Sunday.
While the production of Doughty and Kopitar has boomed, the same hasn’t been true of another battle-tested veteran, goalie Jonathan Quick, who delivered two Stanley Cup titles a decade ago and a superb stretch run last spring. Quick has still not won a game since Dec. 1. That span encompassed seven starts and nine appearances for the 36-year-old Conn Smythe Trophy winner.
While Quick’s own numbers have been less than stellar – he’s had only one start with a save percentage above .880 since his last victory – the Kings have not supported him well either. Outside of a sinewy 6-5 overtime loss in Columbus, Quick’s teammates have scored a meager nine goals in six games in front of him after he led them onto the ice.
“We haven’t been able to put a game together for Quickie, and he’s been very solid back there, so it’s frustrating,” Kopitar said.
Quick started the Kings’ first clash with Carolina, a 4-2 loss on Dec. 3. Despite that fact and Coach Todd McLellan’s statement that Quick’s starts were a “motivating factor” to the rest of the group, Copley seems like a solid bet to start Tuesday.
Copley has received noticeably better goal support. In 17 games that he has both started and finished, the Kings have deposited 62 goals, 3.65 per game. For his own part, even factoring in a 6-0 meltdown in Buffalo and two games in which he was pulled, Copley’s save percentage is a relatively healthy .905.
He and the Kings will head into the eye of the storm to face an intensely competitive Hurricanes team. The Hurricanes have mirrored the flared nostrils and flexed muscles of their head coach and former team captain, Rod Brind’Amour, since he took the helm. They’ll carry a five-game win streak into the showdown with the Kings. Carolina has been powered by No. 1 center Sebastian Aho’s torrent of goals, seven in his last four contests, including one in a 4-1 victory over the NHL-pacing Boston Bruins on Sunday.
The ’Canes also imported a pair of familiar foes over the summer, acquiring winger Max Pacioretty from Vegas and defenseman Brent Burns from San Jose.
Pacioretty sustained a torn Achilles tendon shortly after the trade was completed, delaying his Carolina debut until Jan. 5. He scored three goals in his next two games, but played just three minutes against Columbus due to a lower-body issue. He was in the lineup for the next game against Minnesota on Jan. 20, wherein he tore the same tendon, ending his season prematurely.
Burns is back to being a plus player after three campaigns in the red and ranks 12th among defensemen in scoring. His offensive acumen has been his calling card, so much so that at one point he was converted into a first-line forward for San Jose. So might the world see a more rugged, shutdown-oriented Burns in Raleigh?
“Yes and no, more positionally, really,” Brind’Amour said. “He comes and goes in that area, but his willingness to try to do it the way we want to do it is what makes him a great pro.”
KINGS AT CAROLINA
When: Tuesday, 4 p.m.
Where: PNC Arena
TV/Radio: Bally Sports West/iHeart Radio
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