Kempe’s two-goal night puts Kings back in playoff position

Going up against the NHL’s last-place team, the Los Angeles Kings needed to win, not only to move into playoff position but to prove they could take care of business. They checked both boxes.

Led by two goals from Adrian Kempe, the Kings defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-1, a win which, combined with other results around the league tonight, put Los Angeles back in the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.

“I have a lot of respect for Vancouver,” Kempe said. “Obviously they’re not in the playoff race, but they also don’t have any pressure on them. So they can be tough games. I’ve been on the other side of it, where you go out there, and some games you play really well, and you can beat some really good teams. Tough games, but I think we executed pretty well tonight throughout the 60 minutes.”

Kempe’s goals came in very different contexts in the flow of the game, scoring the first just 89 seconds into the first period.

“That’s something that we’ve been talking about, that maybe over the last couple of weeks, we haven’t had as [many] good starts,” Kempe said. “But I think last game against Nashville was really good. I think tonight was good as well. And obviously, it’s nice when you get rewarded with a goal.”

Kings interim head coach D.J. Smith also gave credit to Quinton Byfield’s line, which started the game, for setting the tone by opening with a good shift.

Kempe’s second goal came at a critical time, in the final minute of the second period. Although the Canucks had outplayed the Kings for a decent portion of the period, they hadn’t scored, and Kempe’s deflection gave Los Angeles a critical 3-1 lead.

“Going into the third with a two goal lead instead of one is a bit of a difference,” Kempe said. “But I think the momentum changes a lot quickly there. We feel better about our game.”

Kempe’s goals were the latest example of his strong play as a linemate of Anze Kopitar and midseason acquisition Artemi Panarin. Since Panarin’s debut with the Kings, Kempe has 14 goals in 21 games.

“They’re learning to play with each other off the puck,” Smith said of the line. “They’re starting to understand how Bread’s going to make a play here, or how he’s going to handle it, or when he gets it, what it kind of looks like. But give Kop a lot of credit. He’s at the net a lot. And you look at that goal by Juice at the end [of the second period], we end up with two inside, Kopi’s on the goalie again.”

Amid a wildly up-and-down season with significant milestones, major personnel turnover and nearly as many overtime losses as regulation wins, the Kings find themselves in a playoff spot with four games left on their schedule. They also control that spot — if they win the rest of their games, they’ll make the postseason.

That assignment, however, gets more difficult in their next game on Saturday, when they face the Edmonton Oilers. In addition to being the Kings’ longtime nemesis, the Oilers have heated up recently, winning six of their last eight games to take the lead in the Pacific Division.

“Right now, we’re finding ways to win games, but we’re taking an Edmonton team on here that’s absolutely rolling,” Smith said. “[Connor] McDavid looks like he’s probably at the height of his career, and they’re playing as good as they’ve played all year. So we got to be ready for that one. If we can find a way to get that one, we’re in a really good spot.”

To come through in that game, they’ll need to take tonight’s attitude and turn it up even further.

“We have to approach every game like a playoff game right now,” defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “We were excited for the game. Crowd was buzzing tonight, so we just kind of rallied off them.”