Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal, right, stops a shot in front of Kings forwards Andrei Kuzmenko, center, and Anze Kopitar during the second period of the Kings' win Thursday at Crypto.com Arena. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
The Kings moved two points closer to clinching home ice for the first round of the playoffs Thursday, riding two goals from Kevin Fiala and goals from Quinton Byfield, Anze Kopitar, Alex Laferriere and Jordan Spence to a 6-1 rout of the Ducks at Crypto.com Arena.
Andrei Kuzmenko and Adrian Kempe each had three assists.
Cutter Gauthier scored for the Ducks, his 20th of the season, early in the second period. But Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper didn’t give up another, extending his streak of games yielding two or fewer goals to 15, one short of the modern NHL record.
The win gave the second-place Kings a four-point lead over the third-place Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division with four games to play. The Kings and Oilers are almost certain to meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for a fourth consecutive season and home ice could be critical for the Kings, who have the NHL’s best home record (30-5-4).
The Oilers won the last three playoff series with the Kings but all three opened in Edmonton.
The Kings needed just 84 seconds to take the lead, with Byfield scoring from the slot on a power play. Gauthier matched that 1:46 into the second period, blasting a snap shot past Kuemper from the right faceoff circle. But Kopitar put the Kings in front to stay 31 seconds later, redirecting in a Mikey Anderson shot from the blue line for his 20th goal of the season.
That marked the 14th time Kopitar has scored 20 or more goals in a season.
Fiala doubled the lead on a power-play goal from the top of the right faceoff circle 2 ½ minutes later before Laferriere made it 4-1, batting down a loose puck at the top of the left circle, then fanning on a shot from the crease before backhanding a second shot.
Fiala and Spence closed the scoring in third period, with Fiala netting his 32nd of the season on the power play and Spence getting his fourth. For Kuzmenko, the three assists gave him 10 points in the last six games while Kempe, whose wife, Sian, gave birth to the couple’s first child, a girl, earlier this week, has nine points over the same six-game span.
The Kings were without defenseman Drew Doughty for a second straight game. Doughty’s absence was related to the broken left ankle that caused him to miss the first 47 games of the season. He is listed as day to day
Despite the loss the Ducks, with 35 wins, have already matched their best regular-season total since 2018-19.
Russia's Alex Ovechkin has become the National Hockey League's highest all-time scorer by hitting his 895th career goal to surpass the legendary Wayne Gretzky's 31-year mark.
Canadian Hall of Famer Gretzky broke the record previously held by his compatriot Gordie Howe in 1994.
Washington Capitals' Ovechkin scored the historic goal against the New York Islanders on Sunday, with Gretzky in attendance.
The game was paused for almost 20 minutes as players and spectators acknowledged the historic moment.
Ovechkin was joined by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and four-time Stanley Cup winner Gretzky, who said: "I can tell you first hand, I know how hard it is to get 894 - [so] 895 is pretty special.
"They say records are made to be broken but I'm not sure who's gonna get more goals than that."
Ovechkin celebrated with his team-mates, completed a lap of the arena and then shook hands with his Islanders opponents before being joined by his family.
"What a moment for hockey, what a moment for myself," Ovechkin said.
"Finally no-one's gonna ask me about 'when you're gonna do it'. It's over right now."
The achievement was celebrated in Moscow-born Ovechkin's homeland too, with the Russian Olympic Committee and Russian President Vladimir Putin's economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev among those posting on social media.
His feat is all the more remarkable given that his season was interrupted for a few weeks when he broke his leg in November.
Alex Ovechkin made his NHL debut in 2005 [Getty Images]
Ovechkin has been a mainstay for Washington Capitals since his NHL debut in October 2005, helping them to their only Stanley Cup victory in 2017-18, and becoming one of the greats.
He has now passed the 40-goal mark in 14 of his 20 NHL seasons, despite missing a month of this campaign with a fractured fibula.
Known for his passionate celebrations and relaxed attitude towards the strict diets expected in the modern game, his face is plastered across the league's marketing material.
But it is the nation's capital where his star truly shines, and with the Capitals having already qualified for the post-season play-offs, he may soon be writing his name in the city's history books once again.
Who previously held the NHL goals record?
Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe are the two previous holders of the NHL goals record [Getty Images]
Ovechkin is passing an all-time great - indeed, Gretzky was given the rather straightforward nickname of 'The Great One' during his career.
The Canadian played 21 seasons in the NHL between 1979 and 1999 predominantly for the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.
Gretzky has held the NHL goals record since he scored his 802nd on 23 March 1994, passing the total of post-war icon Howe, his compatriot and hero.
While he may have lost that record, Gretzky still holds the league record for the most overall points and assists.
Ovechkin may have edged closer, but 'The Great One' remains out on his own.
Kings center Anze Kopitar (11) celebrates with right wing Adrian Kempe (9) and defenseman Drew Doughty after scoring against the Carolina Hurricanes on March 22. The Kings' top line has been on a scoring spree in recent games. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)
What’s in a name? Sometimes a lot.
No one, after all, has ever given a nickname to a bunch of guys who hit .225 or a team that finished in the middle of the standings. But do something special and with flair and people start calling you Magic, The Hammer or The Great One.
Hockey was once at the forefront of this naming ritual, with the tradition of stamping memorable monikers on the sport’s most productive scoring lines dating to the 1920s and the New York Ranger threesome of Bun Cook, Frank Boucher and Bill Cook, collectively known as the “A Line” after the subway line that ran under Madison Square Garden.
The names could sometimes get creative, as with the Vancouver Canucks’ “Mattress Line,” which included two twins (Daniel and Henrik Sedin) and a king (center Jason King) and the Buffalo Sabres’ “French Connection” of French-Canadians Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin and Rene Robert. Or sometimes ridiculous, as with the “Trio Grande Line” of Clark Gilles, Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy, which took the New York Islanders to four straight Stanley Cup titles.
Which brings us to the Kings’ current top line of left wing Andrei Kuzmenko, center Anze Kopitar and right wing Adrian Kempe. It has set no records and won no Stanley Cups; in fact, it hasn’t even clinched a playoff berth, although that will happen shortly.
But since coming together a month ago, when general manager Rob Blake acquired Kuzmenko from the Philadelphia Flyers at the trade deadline, the threesome has become one of the hottest trios in the NHL ahead of the Kings' showdown with the Edmonton Oilers at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.
After getting six or more goals in a game four times in the first 60 games, the Kings did it four times in the next 13 with Kuzmenko. Scoring overall has risen nearly a goal a game and the team has lost just three times in its last 15 games, putting it on pace to open the Stanley Cup playoffs at home, where they have the best record in the Western Conference.
And that has sparked a question: what should the line be called?
“It’s not really on the front burner,” added Glen Murray, the Kings director of player development “I haven’t really thought about it a lot.”
OK, so maybe it’s not a burning question. But there are some candidates just the same.
“AK,” Kopitar said. “That’s what I’m going for.”
Kings forward Andrei Kuzmenko celebrates after scoring against the Winnipeg Jets on April 1. (Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
That one is solid because it works on two levels, using each players’ initials but also highlighting the fact they all have a strong shot.
Patrick O’Neal, who hosts the “LA Kings Live” pregame and postgame shows on FanDuel West, likes Special K. Simple but elegant.
Then there’s the “AAA Line,” inspired by each player’s first initial and the fact that, like the auto club, the line is dependable and the Kings trust it will get them where they want to go.
The odds that any of those will catch on are long since the prevalence of assigning nicknames to top NHL lines has faded in recent years, robbing the game of some of its fun. With line pairings jumbled and players traded so frequently in modern hockey, it has become difficult for fans and the media to develop an association with particular combinations. At the same time, the rise of data and analytics has shifted the focus from the collective performance of a group of players, such as a line, to the performance of individuals.
Murray, who skated on the Boston Bruins’ imposing “700-pound Line,” a name inspired by the collective weight of the three players, said the absence of nicknames doesn’t necessarily represent progress.
“It’s too bad,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with coming up for a name for a line that’s just been put together.”
Hiller believes nicknames can be useful in developing an identity and esprit de corps for young players, who are typically lacking both.But it’s not really necessary on a line centered by someone such as Kopitar, who is fourth among active players in games played.
“For some young players, maybe,” he said. “I’ve seen it when three young players get together and they have energy and stuff like that. But I’m not sure there’s too much that’s going to get Kopi going in a different direction at this stage of his career.”
In any case, it wasn’t a nickname that turned the Kings’ line around but rather the addition of Kuzmenko on the left side.
“It took a few games to kind of understand how Kuzy plays. But they're dangerous,” Murray said. “This guy is Uber talented. He can make plays all over the ice and it's fun to watch. The enthusiasm that Kuzy has for the game, it just oozes out and it goes in Kempe and Kopi.”
Into Blake as well. Rumors ahead of the trade deadline linked the Kings to a number of high-profile targets including Pittsburgh’s Rickard Rakell. Chicago’s Ryan Donato and San José’s Luke Kunin. So when Blake settled on Kuzmenko, who scored 39 goals in his rookie season with Vancouver in 2022-23 then spent the next two seasons shuffling among four teams, the news underwhelmed.
Kuzmenko, however, has overdelivered, collecting four goals and six assists in 15 games. As a result, the trade has proven to be among the most consequential in the Western Conference, reinvigorating a team that saw a season-long five-game losing streak end in Kuzmenko’s debut.
“The way he celebrates his goals, it’s like the last one he’s ever going to score,” Murray said of Kuzmenko. “It gives you a little energy, right? They know they’re going to be a threat.”
The question now is what should they be called?
“The playoffs are coming up,” Murray said. “Having this new line, coming up with a unique name for it, I think it’ll just come one day.
Longtime Kings broadcaster Nick Nickson puts on his headset before calling a game between the Kings and New York Rangers on March 25. Nickson, who has called Kings games since 1981, is retiring at the end of the season. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Don’t think of this as Nick Nickson’s final season behind the microphone for the Kings. Think of it as an encore.
Nickson planned to be golfing by now. He planned to be following his grandkids, Casey and Avery, to their games and attending the birthday parties and anniversaries he had to miss in more than five decades as a hockey broadcaster.
The Kings had other plans, summoning Nickson to a meeting in the summer of 2023 where he worried he might be fired before he could tell them he was ready to retire. Instead the Kings told Nickson, their longtime radio voice, they wanted him to simulcast the radio and TV calls. And they wanted a two-year commitment.
“Had it not been for the change, last year might have been my last,” he said.
Nick Nickson calls a game between the Kings and New York Rangers at Crypto.com Arena on March 25.
The fact it wasn’t makes this season positively, absolutely the last one. (We think.) At 71, Nickson says he has too much he wants to do and not nearly enough time between games in which to do it, so his career will end when the Kings’ season does.
“I’m doing this on my own terms, which I’m grateful for,” he said during an hourlong lunch that was heavy on remembrances and void of regrets. “Some people around the league said ‘Nick why? You still sound so good.’ And yeah I appreciate that.
“But I want to be able to enjoy doing what I want while I’m still healthy. The timing is right.”
The Kings will honor Nickson when they play host to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, a tribute he believes will be heartfelt even though it’s April Fool’s Day.
“I thought of that when they mentioned April 1st, ” Nickson said. “But because so many people are preparing for it, I don’t think it’s going to be a joke. I think it will actually happen.”
Stage manager Donna Moskal points to the camera as Kings broadcasters Jim Fox, left, and Nick Nickson, right, rehearse for a game broadcast.
In his 44 seasons with the Kings, Nickson says he has called more than 3,800 games while narrating the rise of hockey in a desert. He watched the Triple Crown line of Charlie Simmer, Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor; welcomed Wayne Gretzky to L.A.; and saw Jim Fox, Daryl Evans and Jarret Stoll move from the ice into the broadcast booth.
Two other players, Luc Robitaille and Rob Blake, went from Nickson’s broadcasts into the Kings’ front office as president and general manager, respectively.
“For the culture of a franchise to have people that have been around a long time, it means a lot,” said Robitaille, now Nickson’s boss. “You have your core fans that follow the team and when they’ve been listening to Nick Nickson for all these years they’re part of the family. It’s hard to describe.
“Everybody grew up listening to them and then next thing you know, they get married and they have kids, and they’re still listening. I hear those stories over and over.”
That’s because Nickson described more than just hockey. He did the play-by-play of history, calling the Kings’ two Stanley Cup championships. His radio call of the final six seconds of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final is arguably the franchise’s most memorable moment.
“The long wait is over! After 45 years, the Kings can wear their crown!”
Nick Nickson prepares a script before a game between the Kings and Rangers on March 25.
Nickson’s Hall of Fame career — he became the third Kings broadcaster, after Bob Miller and Jiggs McDonald, to be enshrined when he was voted in by his peers in 2015 — began with the minor league Rochester Americans a year after he graduated from Ithaca College, where he served as sports director for the school’s radio station. Two years later he began calling games for the New Haven Nighthawks, the New York Rangers’ AHL affiliate.
That’s where he got the break that changed his life. The Rangers, who had a player-development agreement with the Nighthawks, briefly ended the relationship in 1981 and the Kings, who were looking for an AHL partner, moved in. The Kings needed more than just a minor league affiliate, however.
Pete Weber had left his seat next to Miller, creating an opening in the broadcast booth. Kings coach Parker MacDonald knew Nickson from his time in New Haven, and though MacDonald wouldn’t last the season behind the bench, he was there long enough to push Nickson for the job.
With the move West, Nickson joined perhaps the most storied and iconic group of sports broadcasters ever assembled in one city. In addition to Miller, Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrín were calling Dodgers games, Chick Hearn was doing the Lakers, Tom Kelly was on USC football and Ralph Lawler soon moved north from San Diego with the Clippers.
All six are Hall of Famers. Yet Nickson, the youngest of the group at 27, fit in immediately.
“He was just great to be around,” Miller said. “Nick was always so well prepared. Great player identification. Kept up with the play, all the fundamentals.”
But the key to his success and that of the other Hall of Famers was stability, Nickson said. Scully and Jarrín both spent more than six decades with the Dodgers. Hearn and Lawler did 41 seasons with Lakers and Clippers, respectively. Nickson, meanwhile, is retiring after 44 seasons with the Kings, the same as Miller, who retired in 2017.
Nick Nickson calls a game at Crypto.com Arena between the Kings and Rangers on March 25. The Kings will honor Nickson before Monday's game against the Jets.
“It’s unusual that a broadcaster stays with one team for a number of years. The era of broadcasters sticking with one team for 40, 50 years is probably gone,” said Nickson, whose time with the Kings was measured in a series of short-term contracts that were always renewed. “You have that connection. It’s just a comfort level.”
“What we’ve had to offer and how we’re presented the game, I think it has educated [people] into being a more appreciative hockey fan,” he added. “That only is natural if you’re in that space for that long.”
As a result, giving up the job — and the game — after five decades won’t be easy. Just ask Miller, who was at a Kings game last weekend shortly after surgery for an aneurysm.
“You know, I still miss doing play-by-play,” he said. “There are certain games I’ll be watching on TV and my wife will say, ‘Do you miss that?’ I don’t miss preparation these days, with players changing teams and so many teams. But there are times I’d watch the game and say, ‘Yeah, I’d like to be doing the play-by-play.’”
As for Nickson, “well, he’s a golfer,” Miller said. “He’s got grandkids. So I don’t think he’ll have any problem getting used to it.”
Nickson has one confession he’d like to make before signing off the final time, though. That memorable call at the end of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs? He worked on that ahead of time.
The Kings were so dominant that spring, Nickson was confident they would win before the final series with the New Jersey Devils even started.
“That’s when I came up with what I eventually said,” he remembered.
Nick Nickson takes a brief break in the broadcast booth before a game between the Kings and Rangers on March 25.
But the genius wasn’t in the words, it was in the timing, with Nickson pronouncing the word “crown” as the final horn sounded.
He’s had nearly two seasons now to think about how he’ll end the final broadcast of his 44-year career, one that draws closer with every passing game.
“Maybe,” he finally offered, “I should that say ‘After 44 years the long wait is over.’”
Kings left wing Warren Foegele, left, celebrates with teammates after his first-period goal opened the scoring Thursday. (Eric Thayer / Associated Press)
The biggest obstacle to a long playoff run for the Kings may be the airport.
Provided the Kings make the playoffs, of course, and right now things are looking pretty good. With a dominant 3-0 win Thursday over Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals at Crypto.com Arena, the Kings jumped over Edmonton into second place in the Pacific Division and moved within six points of first-place Las Vegas.
The win was the team’s fourth in a row, its longest winning streak in more than two months. But it wasn’t just that the Kings won; it was how they won and where they won that mattered.
They controlled every phase of the game, outshooting and outhitting the physical Capitals. They scored a power-play goal while killing five penalties of their own. And they shut out the highest-scoring team in the league while stopping Ovechkin, the second-highest-scoring player in history, leaving him nine goals shy of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s once-unbreakable record of 894 career goals.
“That was as complete as it's been all year,” coach Jim Hiller said of his team’s effort. “We had a game plan. We adhered to it as well, for 60 minutes, as each player can.”
That’s how they won. Where they won is just as important.
The Kings have lost in regulation just three times in 29 games at home this season, the best record in the NHL. On the road, their 17 losses are the most among likely Western Conference playoff teams. So if the team begins the playoffs with a trip to LAX, its postseason run could be a short one.
Which wouldn’t be novel. The Kings have been eliminated in the playoffs in the first round in each of the last three seasons — and each time they opened the postseason on the road in Edmonton. In fact, the team has never won a playoff series under general manager Rob Blake, whose job may depend on the Kings winning one this spring.
But then they’ve never had home-ice advantage in a playoff series under Blake, either. Finishing first or second in the division would give them that this year and that would potentially flip the script since the Kings haven’t lost at home to any of the top 15 teams in the NHL this year.
On the road, they’ve beaten just one of those same 15 teams in the last two months.
“We feel, especially on home ice, that it doesn't matter who we're playing. If we play our game, we're going to come out in front,” said goalie Darcy Kuemper, who hasn’t lost in regulation at home since Nov. 7, matching a 34-year-old franchise record by earning a point in 11 consecutive games.
“Obviously we have our eye on trying to get home ice for playoffs,” said Kuemper, who posted his first shutout since New Year’s Day against a team that hadn’t been blanked since the seventh game of the season. “Every team in the race wants that and we know how important every point is going to be down the stretch.”
“We're strong at home this year, way better than last year,” added Kevin Fiala, who had a goal and an assist Thursday. “We feel comfortable we can beat anybody and we’re showing it.”
Thursday’s game definitely had a playoff feel to it and the Kings rose to the challenge, with Warren Foegele giving them the only goal they’d need when he banged in a loose puck from the edge of the crease with 6:52 left in the opening period. The goal, Foegele’s 19th of the season, gave him 200 points for his NHL career.
Fiala doubled the lead with his 22nd goal of the season on a power play 65 seconds into the third period, and while the goal was being announced over the PA system, Quinton Byfield made it 3-0 off an assist from Fiala.
It was the team's 15th goal in the four-game home winning streak; they scored just 16 times in the last eight road games.
“In the locker room, we always believed,” Fiala said. “Doesn’t matter the standings. Doesn’t matter who we beat. But tonight we beat the best team in the league.”
The game turned chippy as the minutes ticked away, with five players sharing the penalty boxes at one point. But the Kings didn’t back down. If they play like that in the playoffs, they’re going to win a lot of games.
“I do believe that our players know that if we are all together, we all do the same thing and play the game the way we believe that our team has to play it to have success, then we can beat anybody,” Hiller said.
Ivan Barbashev and Brett Howden will return to the Vegas Golden Knights lineup tonight after missing Tuesday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins for personal reasons.
On Monday night, the Chicago Blackhawks (20-36-9) snapped a five-game point streak (3-0-2) against the Colorado Avalanche. Despite playing a mostly good road game, they took a hard loss 3-0.
The last two times out, as Red Wings coach Todd McLellan and his staff have put together their lineup, they have omitted Jonatan Berggren's name from the forward group.
