PLAYOFFS!!
Game Day Thread
Game #1 - 4/19/26
>>12:00pm<<
on FanDuel SoCal
&
Los Angeles Kings @ Colorado Avalanche
Ball Arena | Denver, CO
**Game Time 12:00pm**
TV:
Radio: ESPN LA app, Kings app, & Sirius
and ESPNLA 710AM
Check Out More Articles & Video on LA Kings Insider Here
Brandt Clarke & DJ Smith 4/16 Post-Game Quotes
On being a part of Anze Kopitar’s final regular-season game in the NHL
It was a really cool moment. He’s such a special person and having the whole family here, having the kids on the bench before the game, seeing their big smiles, is really special for all of us to endure that with him. We’re looking forward to his last playoff run here. Obviously not the result we wanted tonight, but yeah, still a memorable night overall and we’re going to turn the page and on to the playoffs.
On if he felt it was at all difficult to get up for these final 2 games after clinching
I wouldn’t say so. I think in our room, we still wanted to win, we wanted to move up as we could. Obviously, that didn’t end up happening, but it was Kopi’s last few regular season games, we knew we could still move up, we still had the mindset o we want to go out there, we want to win, we want to play the right way. Overall, we did that. Sometimes, the puck just doesn’t go in the net and that’s what happened tonight. If we’re playing our best style hockey, these are going to be close games coming up here. It’s the most exciting time of the year, so we’re all looking forward to it.
On his thoughts on playing Colorado in Round 1
Obviously, you hear the hype, they have the good players there, they finished first in the regular season, but we’re a scrappy team. We keep it close with everybody and I think that can really frustrate them. If we play our style. It’s going to be a tight series, going to be tight games, and so we’re looking forward to it. In the playoffs, if it comes down to that, it comes down to one shot, you don’t know which way it’s going to go. We have the utmost belief in our group of guys that we can pull off anything.
D.J. Smith
On Anze Kopitar and the final regular-season game of his NHL career
It’s been an absolute pleasure to coach him. The professionalism, his effort, day in, day out, never putting himself bigger than the team. Even when there were stretches, probably this year, where he didn’t play as much as he’d like, he just takes it in stride. I think, just for myself anyways, I thank him for that professionalism and what he’s probably set up for these kids going forward.
On the upcoming Round 1 matchup with Colorado
We knew going in, we knew after two who we were playing. I mean, today with social media and phones, everyone knew after two. For us, I don’t think it matters. Whoever we were going to play, we’d be the underdog and coming from the back. We’re playing well. We know there’s going to be spurts where they’re going to be really, really good but we’re going to have to look at it and manage those times. We’ve got some guys playing well here as well. So, we’re going to find out.
On the team going into that matchup off its strongest month of the season
For sure. We’re going to have to weather the storm, there’s going to be times where they’re really going to come at us. I mean, they have 5,6,7 of the best players in the world over there, but the one thing we’ve always been able to do is play defense. So, we’re going to have to defend real hard and then when we get opportunities, we’re going to have to sting them.
Lineups Courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com
**Nyssa won't have a chance to update any lineup changes
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AVALANCHE PROBABLE LINEUP
NO Former Kings
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GOALTENDING COMPARISON
WESTERN CONF FINAL WILD CARD STANDINGS
**Bet your Karma in the VBookie Thread Here**
THANKS FOR PLAYING "The Game" this season.
CONGRATS to DRice for winning King of the Mountain,
and SUPER-THANKS to jammer06 for totalling up the winners for me every game!!
FINAL POLL GAME WINNERS
Congratulations to the following posters who correctly guessed Byfield for last goal of regular season
and/or Dumoulin for last penalty of the regular season:
Both (2 points):
jammer06
McSorleyFan
Byfield (1 point):
mugs
Drum4Pigs
VegasHockey
KernCoKingFan
empire
Guinevere
Rusty
randdog
Birdman
sonnyboy11
HiFi
Nyssa42
Chateau Bow Wow
Liz4LA
hornman
Dumoulin (1 point):
pray4mojo
FINAL POLL GAME WIN TOTALS
CONGRATS, DRice!!
King of the Mountain - 77 points
DRice
75 points
Chateau Bow Wow
KernCoKingFan
73 points
Nyssa42
72 points
VegasHockey
68 points
Cross Traffic
67 points
Drum4Pigs
motolare
Rogie-Vachon
66 points
Angel Eyes
Birdman
65 points
Forum Gold
pray4mojo
64 points
Rusty
63 points
jammer06
62 points
randdog
SirJW
VCRW
61 points
Hockey53
mugs
60 points
Guinevere
59 points
dannybuoy1
56 points
hornman
55 points
HiFi
Liz4LA
54 points
empire
53 points
Clif
51 points
DRGinLBC
50 points
Dr. Tran
49 points
sonnyboy11
47 points
McSorleyFan
45 points
CIrvine
43 points
notbob
38 points
TooCool
37 points
RoS
symbology
33 points
Shackleford
28 points
beady eye
21 points
ICE24
20 pts
Rog or Reg?
19 points
The Nuts
12 points
Ecktore
9 points
JC6388LAKings
kingsmen93
6 points
Rinkrat
3 points
JETS GARAGE
2 points
Sevenhole
1 point
DarkLeftHand
dneprovec
Jran
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I’m in Cali for my niece’s baby shower. I’m going to be a Great Auntie!! Go Kings Go!!
