The Los Angeles Kings believe they have a plan heading into Game 2 of their Western Conference first-round series against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night in Denver.
After averaging 20.1 hits during the regular season, the Kings delivered 49 during the 2-1 loss to Colorado in Game 1 on Sunday afternoon.
Los Angeles coach D.J. Smith believes they can turn it up a notch, however.
“We’ve got to be more physical,” Smith said. “We’ve got to hit the D more, and I expect that in the next game.”
The Kings played their type of game in the first matchup on Sunday, holding the high-scoring Avalanche without a goal through the first half of the game and pulling within one with 2:22 remaining. Still, they couldn’t get a second puck past Scott Wedgewood.
“That’s the kind of game you can expect playing the Kings,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s a tight-checking team. What’d they play, 50-something one-goal games and low-scoring games? I’m comfortable with that. I think our team’s comfortable with that.”
Colorado is comfortable with Wedgewood guarding the net as well.
He led the NHL in save percentage (.921) during the regular season and has limited the opposition to one goal or fewer in his past five starts.
“I thought he was fantastic,” Bednar said. “Did everything he needed to do. Obviously, bigger stakes, more emotion, but played the exact same way that he’s been playing for us all year.”
The Kings missed two opportunities to score into a wide-open net during the game, crucial wasted chances against a team that led the NHL with 3.63 goals per game during the regular season.
“I don’t think we can outscore them,” Los Angeles defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “We’re comfortable in the low-scoring games, so we’ve got to try and keep it tight, try and give them the least amount as possible.”
Colorado got its first goal on Sunday from the top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Artturi Lehkonen and Martin Necas, but its second goal came from the fourth line of Logan O’Connor, Joel Kiviranta and Jack Drury.
O’Connor did not have a goal in 13 regular-season games, but he could sense his line was gaining chemistry heading into the playoffs.
“For us, our game translates well to the playoffs,” O’Connor said. “It’s a lot of simplicity and muck it up and just wear teams down.”
The Kings scored their lone goal while on the power play and with their goalie pulled to create a two-man advantage. They’ll need to be even sharper on the power play come Tuesday.
Surprisingly, the Avalanche had just the 27th-best power play during the regular season, one spot better than the Kings.
“Whether it’s special teams or whatever, we’ve just got to bear down a little bit more on our chances,” Smith said. “I think we can get more pucks to the net and, again, I think we’ve just got to be a little meaner offensively.”
Anderson realizes the difference between a win and a loss could come down to a friendly bounce or two.
“They found a way to capitalize,” Anderson said of Colorado in Game 1. “So, we’ll watch it and figure out if we can change a few things and try to get better going into Game 2.”
