Kings coach DJ Smith says LA ‘deserves a bounce’ amid 0-3 hole vs. Avalanche

The Los Angeles Kings are on the verge of being knocked out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a seventh consecutive time dating back to 2015-16 — and a fifth straight season.

They were dealt probably the worst matchup imaginable in Round 1, going up against the 55-win, President’s Trophy-capturing Colorado Avalanche. The Avs opened up a 3-0 series lead following a 4-2 victory at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday night.

Despite the mismatch on paper, the two teams have been relatively evenly matched, with the first two games of the series being decided by one goal — and Colorado scoring into an empty net in Game 3.

“This team, I think, deserves a bounce. I think we’ve worked for it, but you can’t just wait for that,” LA interim head coach DJ Smith told reporters, per NHL.com’s Tracey Myers. “You have to go out there, play with detail, play just a little harder than them and have a little more confidence at home.”

The Kings allowed the Avalanche to score the first goal on Thursday, and they were never able to recover. Colorado led 1-0, 2-1, 3-1 and 3-2 before Brock Nelson sealed it with Anton Forsberg on the bench.

The main problem is that LA has struggled mightily to score at 5-on-5. They’ve managed just four goals in the series, with three of those coming on the powerplay.

“It’s the playoffs. It’s hard to score 5-on-5,” Smith said. “If you look at the analytics, and what we’re creating and what we created tonight, it’s a pretty big number. In the regular season, we were scoring at a really good rate. We’re getting those looks, we’re just not capitalizing.

“We had more O-zone time than they did tonight. That doesn’t happen very often, probably, for them. We’re keeping pucks alive. Give them credit, though. They’re a really good defensive team and we just haven’t found a way, or maybe haven’t gotten a bounce, to score some of those ugly goals. We’ve been there.”

The Kings need to find a way to get a couple more pucks past Scott Wedgewood, or it’s going to be another short postseason run in California.

An elimination Game 4 looms on Sunday afternoon, with puck set to drop just past 4:30 p.m. ET.

The post Kings coach DJ Smith says LA ‘deserves a bounce’ amid 0-3 hole vs. Avalanche appeared first on ClutchPoints.