O Kings lost a game they needed to win on Monday, falling to Minnesota Wild 3-1 at the Crypto.com Arena to cloud the team’s playoff prospects with one game left in the regular season.
The loss, the Kings’ first at home in nine games, leaves them one point ahead of Vegas for third place in the Pacific Division. If the Golden Knights defeat the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday and the Ducks on Thursday, the Kings would fall into the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot and face the conference’s top-seeded team in the playoffs.
On Monday, the Dallas Stars – a team the Kings haven’t beaten in three tries this season and were defeated 13-3 – were first in the West.
“I don’t think it matters who we play,” Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “Obviously, anyone that’s in the postseason is a very good team. Whoever it is, we need to be ready to play, probably with a little more intensity than we had today.”
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The Kings (43-27-11) started out in control of their own destiny: Win their last two games and finish third, giving them a chance at home-ice advantage if they survive a likely first-round series with the Edmonton Oilers.
The Kings entered Monday with the NHL’s best home record since the All-Star break and the league’s most penalty kills at home. Both brands were defeated in a poor performance against Minnesota.
“You can describe it a lot of different ways,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said. “There’s not enough intensity, there’s not enough emotion, there’s not enough competitiveness. A lot of words. And they all mean the same thing. We didn’t have that.
“I do not like this. It’s not like we haven’t talked about it. It’s not like they don’t know, like they don’t talk about it among themselves. We all know what the situation is. We just didn’t bring it.”
And the Wild took advantage, with Matt Boldy’s power play goal late in the first period giving Minnesota a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
With Alex Laferriere in the box for interference, Boldy took the puck from Marco Rossi at the blue line, got past defenseman Matt Roy at the top of the slot and sent a shot through the legs of Kings goalie Cam Talbot on the outside. scoring his 29th goal of the season.
Ryan Hartman doubled the lead for Minnesota (39-33-9) with five seconds left in the second period, ending a two-on-one break with a wrist shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle for his 21st goal.
Kirill Kaprizov made the goal happen when he passed to Hartman for his 50th assist of the season.
Kaprizov then made it 3-0 at 8:25 of the third period, deflecting a shot from behind the goal line off Talbot’s back and into the net for his 45th goal and 95th point.
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Blake Lizotte got the Kings on the board with 5:24 to play, but it proved to be too little, too late.
“We are in a playoff race. That’s how I see it,” Hiller said. “That might be the only way to approach it because you have to play. You have to want to win every game. So you’ll let the chips fall where they may; different things can happen.
Talbot stopped 25 shots and Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves.
The Kings received some good news with the return of captain Anze Kopitar. He sat out Saturday’s win over the Ducks because of a minor injury. It was only the second game he has missed since the 2020-2021 season.
This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
