Though the Avalanche clinched a playoff berth on March 20, the Kings had to fight to make it, clinching their postseason berth on April 13. The Kings had an eight-game point streak (6-0-2) before a 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames in the regular-season finale on Thursday.<\/p>\n
In the playoffs for the fifth straight season, the Kings must deal with the Avalanche after they played the Edmonton Oilers the past four first rounds (losing each time).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to weather the storm,\u201d Kings coach D.J. Smith said. \u201cThere are going to be times when they\u2019re really going to come at us. They have five, six, seven of the best players in the world over there, but the one thing we\u2019ve always been able to do is play defense. We\u2019re going to have to defend real hard and then when we get opportunities we\u2019re going to have to sting them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kings come in with extra motivation: this is the final postseason for center Anze Kopitar<\/a>, who\u2019s already announced he\u2019ll retire at the end of this season after a 20-season career with Los Angeles. He won the Cup with the Kings in 2012 and 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t really hit yet, and it won\u2019t until it\u2019s done then,\u201d Kopitar said of this final run. \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on obviously the Colorado team now and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n The Avalanche and Kings played three times this season, but they haven\u2019t squared off in the playoffs since 2001-02. It\u2019s time for the two to get reacquainted.<\/p>\n