The Kings will play the last game of the 2024-25 NHL regular season Thursday when they’ll host the Calgary Flames in a makeup match from Jan. 8 that was rescheduled amid this winter’s massive fires.
Should the Kings win or earn a point by way of an overtime or shootout loss, they’d secure the best single-season points total in franchise history, beating a mark set 50 years ago. It was one they tied Tuesday, along with the franchise record for most wins in a season (48 in 2015-16). Another home victory would not only add to their single-season franchise best and the top performance at home in the NHL this season, but leave them just outside the 10 best campaigns on home ice in league history.
They’ve won four straight games and eight of 10, all part of a 17-4-0 stretch that’s given them the best points total and percentage in pro hockey since March 8, the day after the trade deadline. The Kings have a staggering +41 goal differential in those 21 games after posting a decidedly more modest mark, +7, through the prior 60 contests.
They also won back-to-back away games, the first time they won consecutive road games on the same trip since Nov. 5 and just the third time all season. Since the deadline, their offense went from 23rd in the NHL overall and 30th on the road in goals per game to No. 1 in total scoring and third in road goals per contest.
“We’ve scored some goals, and I think we are scoring goals,” Kings coach Jim Hiller told reporters in Seattle. “During the stretch of time where we didn’t win on the road, we were scoring like zero, one or maybe two goals. Now we’re scoring, and it’s funny how it works, we’re starting to win some games.”
By virtue of wins by Minnesota and St. Louis on Tuesday, the Flames were the final club eliminated from the playoff hunt despite their own overtime victory over Vegas. The Kings, meanwhile, tacked on yet another win despite missing half a dozen regulars – Mikey Anderson, Quinton Byfield, Drew Doughty, Joel Edmundson, Tanner Jeannot and captain Anže Kopitar – as they tamed the Kraken 6-5 in Seattle.
They’re locked into a first-round matchup with the Edmonton Oilers, though the “Groundhog Day” feel of a fourth straight opening-round showdown with the same opponent and one that’s beaten them each time might be abated by the novelty of home ice.
They beat Edmonton 5-0 on Monday to take the season series, including the final two games by a combined 8-0 count against Oilers lineups that had deteriorated due to injuries. In Monday’s match, Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse cross-checked Byfield’s head into the ice. Byfield did not finish the game, nor did he play Tuesday, when Nurse received a one-game suspension for the play.
“They just have their ‘B’ squad in, trying to hurt us,” Kings center Phillip Danault told Patrick O’Neal during an intermission segment Monday.
Next up, they’ll face the Oilers’ Albertan rivals, the Flames, who have beaten the Kings in both meetings this season, though both were in Calgary and the most recent clash came Jan. 11.
Calgary at Kings
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: ESPN