With No Help Coming, Kings Players Struggling To Prove They're Playoff-worthy

You’re connected your own.

That’s nan connection Kings wide head Ken Holland delivered to his squad astatine nan NHL waste and acquisition deadline, erstwhile he turned his attraction from nan coming to nan future.

Rather than make a awesome move, Holland folded. The cards he was holding and nan shortage he faced successful nan standings told him he didn’t person a winning hand.

“These are nan decisions that I person to make,” he said. “Certainly wherever we are successful nan standings, I person to make immoderate philosophical decisions.”

Where they are aft giving up third-period goals conscionable 49 seconds isolated Saturday successful a 4-3 nonaccomplishment to nan Montreal Canadiens is sixth successful nan eight-team Pacific Division, 4 points retired of a wild-card berth pinch 20 games remaining.

So Holland decided draught picks for adjacent play and nan play aft were much valuable than contiguous thief this season. That’s a large alteration successful accuracy from conscionable a period ago, erstwhile Holland traded distant portion of nan early — a imaginable and 2 draught picks — for guardant Artemi Panarin conscionable up of nan Olympic break.

But earlier Panarin had played his 4th crippled pinch his caller team, nan Kings fired coach Jim Hiller and mislaid wingers Andrei Kuzmenko, Kevin Fiala and Joel Armia to injuries.

“If Fiala was patient and Armia was healthy, we’d beryllium looking astatine our squad different,” Holland said. “That’s why I did nan woody earlier nan deadline. We don’t person a batch of cardinal pieces.”

“We want to proceed to effort to push to suffice for nan playoffs,” he continued. “At nan aforesaid time, down nan scenes, we’re trying to get immoderate [draft] picks, looking to nan future.”

So Holland called disconnected nan cavalry. If nan Kings are going to make a tally astatine a 5th consecutive playoff berth, they’re going to person to do it pinch an interim coach and nan guys they already have. Holland made only a fewer cosmetic moves up of Friday’s waste and acquisition deadline, shipping retired forwards Corey Perry and Warren Foegele for draught picks and adding Scott Laughton and Mathieu Joseph, extent pieces, neither of whom are signed beyond this season.

Montreal guardant Juraj Slafkovsky scores connected Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper during nan 3rd play Saturday.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

And if that sounded for illustration a deficiency of confidence, D.J. Smith, nan interim coach, said it was well-earned.

“It’s up to nan players and nan coaching unit to get nan squad successful a spot wherever nan [general] head feels that he’s sewage to really thief nan group to effort to win,” he said Saturday. “Obviously we didn’t do that capable and it’s unfortunate.”

But if nan Kings’ breathing is shallow and their beat faint, they aren’t dormant conscionable yet contempt 7 losses successful their past 9 games.

“We’re trying to win,” Holland said. “It’s nan National Hockey League. We’re [four] points retired of a playoff spot. Maybe nan communicative changes if you’re 15 points retired of a playoff spot. But we’re [four] points retired of a playoff spot.”

Panarin — wearing nan No. 10 sweater Perry had earlier he was traded to Tampa Bay — helped nan Kings return a first-period lead Saturday, battling Montreal defender Mike Matheson for nan puck entering nan Canadiens’ zone. That allowed Adrian Kempe to skate successful and return nan puck disconnected Matheson’s instrumentality and provender Anze Kopitar astatine nan acold station for nan tap-in.

That extremity gave Kopitar 1,304 points for his career, conscionable 3 awkward of Marcel Dionne’s franchise record.

Samuel Helenius thought he had doubled nan lead little than 2 minutes later but nan extremity was waved disconnected by goalie interference. And nan Kings should person had much aft a play successful which they outshot nan Canadiens 16-1.

That proved costly erstwhile Montreal’s Jake Evans drove a slap changeable by Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper from nan apical of nan near circle to necktie nan people successful nan 2nd period.

Juraj Slafkovsky put Montreal successful beforehand little than 5 minutes earlier nan 2nd intermission, lifting a wrist changeable complete Kuemper’s mitt from nan slot. But Laughton, making his Kings debut, sewage that backmost 2 minutes later, lining a debased wrist changeable from a reliable perspective disconnected nan pads of Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes. Jared Wright sewage his first NHL constituent pinch an assistance connected nan play.

The Kings’ Alex Laferriere and Slafkovsky traded third-period goals, pinch Slafkovky scoring 31 seconds aft Trevor Moore went to nan punishment container for slashing. That group nan shape for Nick Suzuki’s go-ahead extremity 49 seconds later, pursuing a Moore turnover heavy successful nan Kings’ end.

And that moved nan Kings a crippled person to a caller play Holland has begun preparing for.

“Time is moving out,” Laferriere said. “We person 20 games near now and we request each azygous point. We can’t alteration what happened truthful we’ve sewage to effort to return nan positives from nan crippled and make judge it doesn’t hap ever again.”

Because from present connected out, they’re connected their own.