Kirby Lee – USA TODAY Sports
The Los Angeles Kings went into last year’s playoffs in the eighth spot of the Western Conference with 95 points and a record of 40-27-15 and ultimately overcame a mountain of odds to become the 2012 Stanley Cup Champions. Although truncated, this season they came into the playoffs in the fifth conference spot, so they may have believed they had a better chance than they did going into last season’s playoffs. Being down two games to none already in Round 1 would have you believe otherwise and is most likely why the St. Louis Blues are taking the Kings by storm.
Although the regular season series between the two clubs doesn’t show it, it’s been a close race for the Kings (27-16-5) with the Blue (29-17-2) in the overall standings the entire season up to this point as they trailed them by only one point, two wins and one loss and both of their playoff losses so far have been by a mere point.
Perhaps returning home to play at the Staples Center will revitalize the Kings although it may take more of a spark such as a player like Jeff Carter or Mike Richards stepping up. Where are these guys right now? The team could definitely use their skills to pull them out of this 2-game rut they find themselves in.
Carter’s plus/minus for this playoff series is currently at -1 without any goals or assists to speak of while Richards has tallied one assist and his plus/minus is even at 0. The Kings won the regular season series by three games to one over the Blues with both of these key players being more productive as well. Richards recorded four points (2G, 2A) in the four games with an overall plus/minus of +4 while Carter also earned four points (3G, 1A) and had an overall plus/minus of +2. When these two are productive against St. Louis, the team does well, so they need to step up their game right now.
It’s only two games and it still takes four to win, so the Kings are down in games but not yet out of the series and they still have a chance, albeit a difficult one, to climb out of this deficit and take over the series. They’ll have their next chance tomorrow evening at 7:00 pm.
