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4 keys for Kings vs. Avalanche first-round playoff series

April 18, 2026

The Kings will fling pucks from a sling as they play David to the Colorado Avalanche’s Goliath in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Colorado scored the most goals and allowed the fewest. They boasted the best penalty kill, most favorable goal differential (+99) and a host of other superlatives in the NHL this season.

The Kings snuck into the postseason with six fewer points than the Calgary Flames missed with last year, a decidedly negative ledger (-22) and poor performance on both sides of the special-teams coin.

But hey, at least they’re not playing the Edmonton Oilers again.

However unlikely, here are four keys to the Kings shocking the world to advance for the first time since 2014.

Falling giants

The lopsided matchup on paper may have handed the Kings a historical bellwether.

Colorado (55-16-11, 121 points) won the Presidents’ Trophy with the league’s best record, and that has not boded well for contenders in this era. Going back to the full-season lockout and even two campaigns prior, only two Presidents’ Trophy winners have gone on to garner the hardware they really wanted, the Stanley Cup. Detroit did so in 2008 and Chicago was the last team to accomplish the feat, during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.

READ: Kings vs. Avalanche: First-round scouting report, prediction

Even historically great campaigns have fallen short. The Tampa Bay Lightning tied the record for most victories in a season with 62 in 2019 and the Boston Bruins broke that record, winning 65 games in 2022-23. Both teams lost in the first round, with Tampa being swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston blowing a 3-1 lead against the Florida Panthers. They were two of six Presidents’ Trophy winners to lose in Round 1 since the lockout. The Avs’ 121 points are the sixth-most since the lockout, and four of the other five teams with 121 or more points have lost in Round 1, with the fifth falling in Round 2.

The Kings (35-20-20, 90 points) have done a little giant-killing of their own, and Anže Kopitar, Drew Doughty and assistant coach Matt Greene were there for it. They knocked off the pace-car Vancouver Canucks in 2012 as an opening-round springboard to the franchise’s first championship.

Kuzy, Q and the Bread Man

Offensively, this series looks like it pits a machete against a spork, but the Kings have a few upward trends in their attack.

Andrei Kuzmenko experienced hard luck on either side of the Olympic break. Just when he jettisoned protective gear for a facial injury sustained right before the pause, he tore his meniscus right afterward. He appears to be an option for this series, and after an early stretch that included several healthy scratches, he was finding his touch.

Quinton Byfield did the same down the stretch, shouldering immense defensive responsibility (e.g. shadowing Connor McDavid in a vital 1-0 win) and scoring at a 44-goal pace after the break. Byfield’s importance has never been greater to the Kings, with Kopitar taking on milder matchups generally and being poised to retire whenever the Kings are eliminated.

Artemi Panarin – aka Bread Man, in a play on Panera Bread – dragged the top line and power-play units back into the fight after a lull as well. Jared Wright and Scott Laughton have spruced up a bottom six that was already beefier with the addition of Joel Armia but depleted by the departures of Phillip Danault, Warren Foegele and Corey Perry.

Wild cards in goal

For teams that have been respectable in the Kings’ case and champions in the Avs’ case, neither team has much in the way of established big-game goaltending.

Mackenzie Blackwood started seven games for the Avs last year and he hardly overwhelmed as they were eliminated in the first round. Scott Wedgewood backed him up, adding 19 minutes to a limited oeuvre from his time as a depth goalie in Dallas. They’ve performed well for a team that has the puck a lot and defends effectively, but bright lights and high stakes have shaken even marquee competitors.

The Kings have even less to go on, now that 33-year-old Anton Forsberg leapfrogged the seasoned Darcy Kuemper late in the year and has never so much as appeared in a playoff game. He won five consecutive starts to propel the Kings into the spring. He snapped his string in the regular-season finale against Calgary, in which he still allowed just two goals, the second of which was a superb individual effort from Zayne Parekh.

Sometimes, being hot and getting lucky can trump playing well, and Forsberg’s recent performance could offer the Kings a puncher’s chance.

The weight of expectation

Colorado was part of a triumvirate that ran away with the Central Division’s three playoff positions. Yet the Avs’ championship odds are much shorter than those of the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild, and it’s hard to deem anything short of hoisting the Cup a success.

They’ve also followed up their bubbly-quaffing brilliance in 2022 with two first-round exits that had a second-round loss wedged between them. The return of captain Gabriel Landeskog, after three seasons away due to knee injuries, didn’t give them quite enough of an emotional lift last year, and this time around it’s the Kings with Kopitar’s forthcoming final bow as fuel.

The Kings, on the other hand, have no expectations whatsoever. They finally got on a roll with a five-game win streak and eight-game points streak late in the year, but largely made the playoffs by default in a poor division and shallow conference. In the East, 90 points was nine below the cutoff line to go beyond Game 82, and the Kings tied for second-fewest regulation wins in the entire league with a meager 22.

While the Kings feasted on pity points to contort and squeeze their way into the playoffs, the reset button has been pressed firmly around the NHL. Now, the Avalanche have all the hype at the sports books, while the Kings are playing with house money.

NHL PLAYOFFS WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND

Sunday: Game 1 at Colorado, noon (TNT, TruTV, DIRECTV)

Tuesday: Game 2 at Colorado, 7 p.m. (ESPN, DIRECTV)

Thursday: Game 3 at Crypto.com Arena, 7 p.m. (TNT, TruTV, DIRECTV)

April 26: Game 4 at Crypto.com Arena, 1:30 p.m. (TNT, TruTV, DIRECTV)

April 29: Game 5* at Colorado (time and TV TBD)

May 1: Game 6* at Crypto.com Arena (time and TV TBD)

May 3: Game 7* at Colorado (time and TV TBD)

* if necessary

Orange County Register

News Details

4 keys for Kings vs. Avalanche first-round playoff series

Falling giants

Kuzy, Q and the Bread Man

Wild cards in goal

The weight of expectation

NHL PLAYOFFS WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND

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