LOS ANGELES — Kings organist Dieter Ruehle was feeling a bit cheeky during Thursday’s 8-1 trouncing by the Edmonton Oilers.
He broke out Queen’s “Hammer to Fall,” Pantera’s “Walk” and The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” as the crowd provided a steady chorus of “Fire Hiller.”
But for the man toward whom those chants were aimed, Kings coach Jim Hiller, the soundtrack in his head was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
“I feel the same way, I really do. We’ve had a couple injuries that probably have slowed us a little bit, but I believe in our team, I really do,” said Hiller, doubling down on his “extreme confidence” that better days lied ahead.
“I’ve said this since maybe six or seven games into the season, we are going to get on a run and win six or seven, eight games in a row. I know it. I know our team is good enough to do that,” he continued. “It’s been an odd year, for whatever reasons, that way, and so I’m positive and optimistic that’s still going to happen.”
During that “odd year,” the Kings have won three or more games just twice, with their season-high four-win chain now a distant memory from mid-November.
Instead, their current “run” is of five straight losses, their fifth string of three or more losses and fourth of four or more.
Last season, the Kings leapfrogged Edmonton in the standings before losing to the Oilers yet again during the playoffs. They were even chasing the Vegas Golden Knights for the division lead. But a night before the Oilers defenestrated the Kings, Vegas strolled into their castle and slayed them despite missing its five best players and at least seven bodies overall.
After blowing a lead and giving up five final-frame goals to Vegas, the Kings were utterly feckless in the third period against Edmonton. They allowed their deficit to balloon from four goals to seven while putting up just three shots to the Golden Knights’ 14.
Still, Hiller said his messages were not falling on deaf ears, while Mikey Anderson and Anže Kopitar said the players hadn’t quit on their coach.
“It may not always seem like it from the outside, but we’ve got a good group of guys here, guys that want to be here. A game like today, it’s just unfortunate,” Anderson said after the Edmonton debacle. “It comes down to us though. We’ve got to be better in division games that are really important right now.”
The Kings who, credibly or not, have presented their four straight first-round ousters as building toward something greater now face the distinct possibility of missing the playoffs altogether for the first time since 2021.
“We’ve got to get on track here, real quick,” Kopitar said. “It’s getting to a point where the teams on the outside looking in, their chances are slimming down.”
In Saturday’s matinee, they’ll face Alberta’s other franchise, the Calgary Flames. Calgary missed the playoffs due to a tiebreaker last year but was condemned to also-ran status early this season by a nasty stumble out of the starting blocks.
They already dealt top defenseman Rasmus Andersson to Vegas in something of a repeat of the Noah Hanifin saga. Yet the Flames have won three of their past four games and since ending their eight-game freefall during games two through nine, they have a better points percentage than the Kings.
Even factoring in their faceplant, they have one more win overall and six more in regulation than the Kings, who sit second to last in victories completed in 60 minutes.
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: FDSN West
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He broke out Queen’s “Hammer to Fall,” Pantera’s “Walk” and The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” as the crowd provided a steady chorus of “Fire Hiller.”
But for the man toward whom those chants were aimed, Kings coach Jim Hiller, the soundtrack in his head was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
“I feel the same way, I really do. We’ve had a couple injuries that probably have slowed us a little bit, but I believe in our team, I really do,” said Hiller, doubling down on his “extreme confidence” that better days lied ahead.
“I’ve said this since maybe six or seven games into the season, we are going to get on a run and win six or seven, eight games in a row. I know it. I know our team is good enough to do that,” he continued. “It’s been an odd year, for whatever reasons, that way, and so I’m positive and optimistic that’s still going to happen.”
During that “odd year,” the Kings have won three or more games just twice, with their season-high four-win chain now a distant memory from mid-November.
Instead, their current “run” is of five straight losses, their fifth string of three or more losses and fourth of four or more.
Last season, the Kings leapfrogged Edmonton in the standings before losing to the Oilers yet again during the playoffs. They were even chasing the Vegas Golden Knights for the division lead. But a night before the Oilers defenestrated the Kings, Vegas strolled into their castle and slayed them despite missing its five best players and at least seven bodies overall.
After blowing a lead and giving up five final-frame goals to Vegas, the Kings were utterly feckless in the third period against Edmonton. They allowed their deficit to balloon from four goals to seven while putting up just three shots to the Golden Knights’ 14.
Still, Hiller said his messages were not falling on deaf ears, while Mikey Anderson and Anže Kopitar said the players hadn’t quit on their coach.
“It may not always seem like it from the outside, but we’ve got a good group of guys here, guys that want to be here. A game like today, it’s just unfortunate,” Anderson said after the Edmonton debacle. “It comes down to us though. We’ve got to be better in division games that are really important right now.”
The Kings who, credibly or not, have presented their four straight first-round ousters as building toward something greater now face the distinct possibility of missing the playoffs altogether for the first time since 2021.
“We’ve got to get on track here, real quick,” Kopitar said. “It’s getting to a point where the teams on the outside looking in, their chances are slimming down.”
In Saturday’s matinee, they’ll face Alberta’s other franchise, the Calgary Flames. Calgary missed the playoffs due to a tiebreaker last year but was condemned to also-ran status early this season by a nasty stumble out of the starting blocks.
They already dealt top defenseman Rasmus Andersson to Vegas in something of a repeat of the Noah Hanifin saga. Yet the Flames have won three of their past four games and since ending their eight-game freefall during games two through nine, they have a better points percentage than the Kings.
Even factoring in their faceplant, they have one more win overall and six more in regulation than the Kings, who sit second to last in victories completed in 60 minutes.
Calgary at Kings
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: FDSN West
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