The Los Angeles Kings finally will return to the ice after an extended All-Star break, looking to restart the momentum they had while collecting points in six consecutive games on a trip through the Eastern Conference.
The Kings will play host to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday after sitting on pause since Feb. 2, when they defeated the host Detroit Red Wings 5-3.
While the Kings will battle rust, the Oilers will be challenged by fatigue after a 3-0 road victory against the San Jose Sharks on Monday. Jay Woodcroft is 2-0-0 since taking over as Oilers head coach Thursday, replacing the fired Dave Tippett.
Tuesday’s game originally was scheduled for Dec. 22 before the NHL began a COVID-19 pause in the schedule and got an early jump on the holiday break.
The Kings hope to have learned something from their previous extended break. They went eight days between games on each side of Christmas and had a hard time turning on the energy when they reconvened. They returned with a 6-3 home defeat against the Vegas Golden Knights on Dec. 28 before stepping on the gas to win six of their next seven.
“Yeah, this was significantly better than the Christmas (return to) practice, which is a good sign,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said after the Kings got back on the ice over the weekend. “It doesn’t guarantee us any kind of success against Edmonton, but if our performance was like Christmas, it would have guaranteed us failure.
“The group was good, practice was designed just to get up and down. There wasn’t a lot of grinding, but there was a lot of skating. … We’ll grind a little bit more and then it’s non-stop through April.”
The Kings return to play tied with the Anaheim Ducks for third place in the Pacific Division with 55 points, but have played two fewer games than their rival. Now they are on a 35-game regular-season push to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
After six- and seven-game losing streaks since the start of December, the Oilers are looking up at the Kings in the division with 53 points. Warren Foegele, Darnell Nurse and Connor McDavid all scored goals for the Oilers on Monday, making them 7-2-1 since Jan. 22.
In seven games with the Oilers, forward Evander Kane has two goals and two assist. Against his former team Monday, Kane had 19 minutes of ice time and took four shots.
Edmonton is 4-2-1 since Kane’s arrival.
“It’s a big road trip. Two divisional opponents that are right in the thick of things,” said Kane, who downplayed his return to San Jose after the team waived him Jan. 8 for multiple off-ice incidents. “We have some games in hand, so we want to use those to our advantage.”
In improving to 4-0-1 over their last five road games, the Oilers outshot the Sharks 41-20. Edmonton also held an opponent to one goal or less for the second consecutive game under Woodcroft after not doing that over the previous 28 contests.
“I think he’s come in on a really short period of time and put his touch on the group pretty quickly, so it’s been good to see,” Kane said of Woodcroft. “I’m sure that’s going to continue as we go along here.”
–Field Level Media