Preview: Avs start road trip with late-night look at LA Kings

The Colorado Avalanche look to complete a season sweep over the Los Angeles Kings tonight at Ball Arena in Denver. The Kings have struggled with a persistent lack of scoring, prompting their acquisition of Artemi Panarin earlier this season.

Unfortunately, the move hasn’t delivered the offensive spark they expected, contributing to the firing of head coach Jim Hiller on March 1.

D.J. Smith has been elevated to interim head coach as the team searches for a jolt.

Meanwhile, the Avalanche continue to rack up wins despite an inconsistent power play and occasional overhandling of the puck. Will it be the desperate Kings that come out on top, or are the Avalanche just too good?

Colorado Avalanche

Those fans who constantly yell ‘Shoot!’ whenever the Avalanche hold the puck in the offensive zone for too long usually annoy me—but right now, they’re validated. In their last outing against the Blackhawks, Colorado passed up way too many prime scoring chances, allowing a rebuilding Chicago team to stick around in a game they had no business being competitive in. Let’s see if the Avs can buck that trend tonight.

Nothing has been written or talked about more in Colorado than their power play, which continues to struggle mightily at generating dangerous looks and seems all too content with perimeter point shots from Cale Makar and cross-ice one-timers. The lack of creativity comes off as stubborn and entitled at this point. That mindset has to change—and soon—if they’re going to make a deep playoff run.

Projected Lineup:

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Valeri Nichushkin
Gabriel Landeskog — Brock Nelson — Martin Necas
Ross Colton — Jack Drury — Victor Olofsson
Joel Kiviranta — Parker Kelly — Gavin Brindley

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Josh Manson — Brent Burns
Brett Kulak — Sam Malinski

Scott Wedgewood
MacKenzie Blackwood

Los Angeles Kings

Anze Kopitar has been vocal lately, telling media ‘we need to be better’ amid the Kings’ ongoing struggles, but many LA fans are simply pleading for the team to open things up offensively. Their heavy emphasis on checking, structure, and back-end play has seemingly drained the life from the attack, contributing to persistent scoring woes despite additions like Artemi Panarin.

With D.J. Smith stepping in as interim head coach after Jim Hiller’s firing, expect a potential shift—Smith’s energetic, confidence-focused style could encourage a riskier, more open brand of hockey than the cautious approach seen in the first two meetings this season against Colorado.

Keep an eye on defenseman Brandt Clarke, who’s deployed a classic pest strategy in those prior matchups—cross-checking, agitating, and getting under the Avs’ skin. As the rubber match in this season series (with the sweep on the line), things could get chippy, and we might see some fisticuffs to settle the bad blood.

Projected Lineup:

Artemi Panarin — Anze Kopitar — Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore — Quinton Byfield — Alex Laferriere
Warren Foegele — Alex Turcotte — Corey Perry
Jeff Malott — Samuel Helenius — Taylor Ward

Joel Edmundson — Brandt Clarke
Mikey Anderson — Cody Ceci
Jacob Moverare — Brian Dumoulin

Anton Forsberg
Darcy Kuemper