After being named interim head coach on Sunday, D.J. Smith will have to come out of the bullpen and throw heat as the Kings face the NHL’s heaviest hitter, the Colorado Avalanche, on Monday.
The Avs have more than twice as many regulation wins, 36, as the Kings, 15, and their league-leading +75 goal differential exceeds the Kings’ -22 by nearly 100 goals. Seven of the top 10 plus-minus ratings belong to Colorado skaters. Their points percentage is 55 ticks higher than any other team’s, making them a veritable lock for the Presidents’ Trophy.
The Kings, on the other hand, just sacked their head coach and are in peril of missing the playoffs altogether for the first time in five years, sitting behind wayward franchises like Seattle and Nashville in the postseason race.
Colorado also beat the Kings comfortably in two prior meetings this year, never trailing in a pair of victories that came by a 9-3 aggregate score.
In short, the Kings will need more than just the “jolt” a coaching change can bring, according to General Manager Ken Holland and team captain Anže Kopitar.
Theoretically, the Kings should have gotten a boost from the acquisition of Artemi Panarin. But on the day he was acquired, they lost, and the next evening as well. They also lost his debut to a severely undermanned Vegas Golden Knights squad and then scored two goals against a goalie in two games in the second and third installments of his tenure, though they did win in his third appearance.
Nevertheless, Smith said his goal was to “come in here and push this team to get where we need to go,” referring to making its fifth straight playoff appearance under its third different head coach.
“We’ve got to get our confidence. We have three Hall-of-Fame players in our dressing room, and our guys gotta gravitate to that leadership and take confidence in that,” said Smith, referring to the soon-to-retire Anže Kopitar, the injured Drew Doughty and the newly acquired Panarin. “We gotta start feeling better about ourselves.”
“We just haven’t had that swagger,” he continued. “It’s a short runway to get it done. We’ve got the best team in the league coming in here tomorrow, and guys gotta start to believe a little bit, guys gotta start feeling good about themselves.”
Smith, an assistant previously who was brought in when Hiller was promoted in February of 2024, admitted that last year’s reverse sweep at the hands of the Oilers had a lingering effect on the team.
“That particular loss, the way we lost, somehow carried on into this season. It ends now,” Smith said. “The way we lost, you could feel it, you could feel it dragging the group down and maybe we didn’t believe in ourselves. It’s over. That has ended. Today is a brand new, fresh start.”
While they won’t face Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl or Evan Bouchard on Monday, the Avs have roughly as much star power.
Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Nečas each notched six points in their past three games for Colorado. MacKinnon ranks second in scoring, Nečas places 11th and perennial Norris Trophy candidate Cale Makar sits third among defensemen.
“What better team to play right now, to come out and play the way we play?” asked Smith, who also joked that he hoped MacKinnon and Makar would come down with the flu.
Yet it was the Kings dealing with a bug already. Former Av Darcy Kuemper was ill and unavailable against Colorado. One-time University of Denver star Trevor Moore was also sick, which could open the door for Kenny Connors’ NHL debut. Joel Armia and Drew Doughty were also day-to-day, while Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko will not play again during the regular season.
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