The Kings entered Fan Appreciation Night in a playoff position, carrying a four-game winning streak into Seattle for a 6:30 p.m. start against the Kraken.
Los Angeles had won six of its last eight and five of its last six had been decided by one goal, including three beyond regulation. That kind of run has defined the Kings all season. They had played a league-high 27 games beyond regulation, collected 19 extra standings points from losses that went past regulation and still held the second wild card spot in the Western Conference with a.430 winning percentage. Their record told the same story from another angle: 21 regulation wins, 13 overtime and shootout victories and a place tied with Chicago for the second fewest regulation wins in the NHL, ahead of only Vancouver's 15.
There was real damage behind the standings math. Kevin Fiala suffered a season-ending broken leg while playing for Switzerland at the Winter Olympics, then the Kings traded for Artemi Panarin right before the Olympic break. Panarin has given them nine goals and 17 assists in 23 games. That production has mattered because Los Angeles has needed every point it can find to stay above the cut line.
Seattle came in with a smaller but useful push of its own, having won its previous two games and looking for a better night than the last time the crowd was asked to celebrate. The Kraken had dropped their previous three Fan Appreciation Night games, including a 6-5 overtime loss to the Kings a year ago. They were 19-16-5 at home and could set a franchise record for home points in a season with 45, topping their best previous mark of 20-17-4 from 2022-23.
The matchup also fit Seattle's season in a way that has been hard to ignore. The Kraken were 32-7-4 when they scored at least three goals and 2-27-7 when they did not, a split that explained how a team could win by control one night and disappear the next. They had scored at least three goals in games they won, and in the past two games they got contributions from multiple forward lines, including Chandler Stephenson scoring for the second line Saturday. That balance has given them a chance to keep building at home, while the Kings keep surviving on the margins of regulation and overtime. In a race this tight, that is often the difference between playing into April and watching it from home.
