The Los Angeles Kings are perched atop the Pacific Division standings, and among the reasons for that success is their ability to curtail losing streaks.
Heading into a clash with the host Calgary Flames on Monday, the Kings have not lost consecutive games since the first week of the season.
“That’s character and will to win, and veteran leadership,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “Those guys have to get out there and organize the team without practicing much. If you don’t have veteran guys or leadership like we have, it makes it pretty tough.”
The Kings are set to open a quick two-game road swing on the heels of a 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday and have won six of their past nine outings.
Los Angeles showed the ability to bounce back during its win on Saturday, which followed a 4-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
“After a loss, you want to come out with a good response,” Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “First period, we all thought was so/so but we liked it a lot better in the second, so everyone is happy to come away with two points.”
The team’s defensemen have combined for 11 goals this season, tied for tops in the league, thanks to another couple against the Blue Jackets.
“Our forwards help us, they get to the net hard,” Anderson said. “They’ve done a good job creating traffic and we’re just trying to shoot, get something down there and create something for them to get grinding.”
Kings forward Phillip Danault is riding an assist streak of five games, with six points (one goal, five assists) during that run.
The Flames return home after a good-news, bad-news three-game road trip that ended with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Sabres on Saturday. Calgary’s 1-0-2 trip started with a victory against the Montreal Canadiens before the Flames fell in consecutive extra-time meetings with the Boston Bruins and Buffalo.
“Four of six points. Not great, not just OK, but good,” Calgary defenseman MacKenzie Weegar assessed. “Battled back in a few games to get points, but you know, we come back next road trip, we want to win these games, not just get one point.”
The Flames trailed in the third period during all three games of the trip. The comebacks are a point of pride, but Calgary is aware that good teams don’t trail time and time again.
“We know that we’ve got to be better going home now,” Calgary captain Mikael Backlund said. “We know first period’s going to be a big key for us. It’s great that we (came) back and showed character, resilience, staying in every game, fighting back and get points, but if you want to win games, we’ve got to start to have better first periods.”
That said, Calgary coach Ryan Huska is not about to criticize his players too much. The Flames have gained points in four of their past five games and are hanging tough in the standings.
“There’s a lot of good things,” Huska said. “There’s areas that we have to work on, and they’re the common things that we’ll continue to hammer on with our players.”
