No Time for Kings to Take Break

A quick glance at the tightly packed NHL standings indicates that the difference between the 16 teams that will make the playoffs and those that will get an early start on their summer vacations will be razor thin.

The Kings, for instance, arrived at the All-Star break only three points behind the first-place San Jose Sharks in the Pacific Division after a 40-point surge in December and January, one point shy of the most productive two-month run in club history.

If they can continue playing as they did in compiling an 18-7-4 record over the last two months, Coach Andy Murray’s team has a good chance to pass the Sharks and win only the second division championship in team history.

That would earn them no worse than a No. 3 playoff seeding and home-ice advantage in the first round for the first time in 10 years.

On the other hand, the Kings are seventh in the Western Conference and only one point ahead of the Dallas Stars and two in front of the Phoenix Coyotes and Vancouver Canucks in the race for the eighth playoff slot.

That’s why Murray considers the five-game pre-Olympic run that begins tonight against the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia Flyers at Staples Center a potentially hazardous stretch for his and other NHL teams.

After the four-day All-Star break, the regular season resumes today for 10 days before it is interrupted again Feb. 14 for the Salt Lake City Games.

“The one thing I mentioned to our team this morning was, there are going to be some teams that I think may have some regrets about how they play their games between now and the start of the Olympics,” Murray said Sunday. “We want to do our part to make sure we’re not one of those teams.”

With some players perhaps holding back as they anticipate representing their countries in the Olympics and others possibly looking forward to a vacation after a grueling five months since the start of training camps last fall, Murray said, “There may be some teams that play themselves out of the playoffs.”

He is confident, however, that the Kings won’t be one of them.

“We haven’t battled as hard as we have this year to go out and not play hard now,” he said. “And you hope when you play hard that you get the right results.”

The results in December and January ranked among the best in club history. Only the 1990-91 team, led by Wayne Gretzky, put together a more impressive two-month run, accumulating 41 points in February and March en route to the Kings’ only division championship. The Kings were 18-6-5 over those two months.

“I think we are a focused team,” Swedish defenseman Mattias Norstrom, one of six Kings who will play in the Olympics, said of the current team. “We’ve played some pretty good hockey of late, so I don’t think that focus is a problem at all.

“We didn’t have any problems going into the All-Star break [during a 2-0 trip last week], so I don’t know why we would have any leading up to the Olympics.”

TONIGHT

vs. Philadelphia, 7:30

Fox Sports Net

Site--Staples Center.

Radio--KSPN (1110).

Records--Kings 25-19-7-2, Flyers 31-14-6-2.

Record vs. Flyers (2000-01)--0-1.

Update--The Flyers, led by U.S. Olympian Jeremy Roenick, are two points ahead of the Boston Bruins in the race for Eastern Conference supremacy. They are a league-best 16-8-3 away from home, two points better than the Kings’ road record of 14-9-4-1.

Tickets--(888) 546-4752.

Jerry Crowe