The Los Angeles Kings will be looking to snap a four-game skid when they play host to the momentum-gaining St. Louis Blues on Wednesday.
Heading into the first of two meetings in a four-day span — both at home, where Los Angeles is 19-3-3 this season — the Kings are in a 0-3-1 stretch, with the last three defeats settled in regulation time. They are coming off a 5-1 road loss to the cellar-dwelling Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, a game that was tied before the first of four unanswered goals in the opening minute of the second period.
The Kings outshot the Blackhawks 42-18, but that was little consolation.
“On most nights you’d be leading in the first if not by one, maybe two, maybe three, so no problem,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller told LAKingsInsider.com. “Maybe we got frustrated because we had a difficult time scoring. I don’t know if that was it.”
Los Angeles is third in the Pacific Division and looking for a hint of revenge against the Blues, who have won three straight meetings, including a 4-1 affair on Saturday in which host St. Louis scored four unanswered goals.
“We owe that club a better effort than we did last time. They kind of beat us at our own game,” Kings forward Warren Foegele said. “I think everyone’s excited to get home and get rid of that.”
Hiller cautioned how his squad must worry about the process, not revenge.
“We owe ourselves one. I’m not too worried about owing them one,” he said. “I’m worried about us playing our game and playing it for 60 minutes and then we’ll see what the outcome is.”
St. Louis arrives after a 6-3 setback against the Dallas Stars on Sunday in the opener of a six-game road trip. The Blues were on a four-game winning streak and 5-0-1 run that has them nipping at the Western Conference’s second wild-card playoff spot with 20 games remaining.
Remembering the positives was the message sent through despite the disappointment.
“Our 5-on-5 game was pretty good. Just got to tighten up our special teams,” Blues forward Nathan Walker said. “I think we’re doing a good job taking care of the puck and playing the right way. It’s shown over the last four or five games or so. … We’ve just got to keep that going in the next one.”
St. Louis will visit the Anaheim Ducks on Friday before returning to Los Angeles for their Saturday matchup.
As much as the Blues are doing their best to prevent negative thoughts from creeping into their game, they do know a key to climbing the standings will be improving their struggling penalty kill.
Dallas scored four power-play goals in four opportunities against St. Louis, which ranks 31st overall in penalty killing.
“We didn’t execute. We weren’t as aggressive as we have been, and you give a good power play like that time and space, they’re going to make tic-tac-toe plays — and they did that to us,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “Our 5-on-5 game was pretty good, our special teams game we didn’t match.”
Blues forward Robert Thomas is riding a 10-game point streak, collecting four goals and 10 assists.
–Field Level Media
