EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Dwight King has been living in a hotel since the Kings recalled him from the minors more than three months ago, and the playoff hero isn’t about to move out of his temporary digs.
He’s not tempting fate while the Kings are on the verge of exceeding his wildest dreams for his first NHL postseason run.
“It’s a dream,” King said Friday at the club training complex while Los Angeles recovered from its 2-1 victory in Game 3. “You want to be part of the Stanley Cup playoffs. To be a contributor is even better. Everything is coming around.”
Indeed, Los Angeles is on the brink of its second Stanley Cup final after leaping to a 3-0 lead over reeling Phoenix in the Western Conference finals. The eighth-seeded Kings are on an unbelievable 11-1 streak with eight consecutive wins in the postseason, outscoring their opponents 37-17 and winning the first three games in each of their first three series.
“It’s a situation that we’re in that we have to embrace, still look to get better and improve,” center Mike Richards said. “By no means is it going to be easy [today].”
The Kings have almost grown leery of talking about their winning streak, a bit like the teammates of a pitcher throwing a no-hitter. Yet concrete accomplishment is just one win away: With a victory in Game 4 this afternoon, the Kings finally would have another banner to hang next to the single division title and conference title banners forlornly decorating a small section of a wall at Staples Center.
That arena faces a time crunch: If the Kings-Coyotes match, scheduled for a 3:30 start, goes multiple overtimes, it may cause the postponement of the evening’s Clippers-Spurs NBA playoff game, slated to tip at 10:30, until tomorrow, according to an ESPN report.
But the red-hot Kings are thinking about finishing off a sweep in 60 minutes. They have joined Detroit (1995) and Edmonton (1983) as the only teams since 1980 to win 11 of their first 12 playoff games.
Forward Jeff Carter said it’s “a little bit” difficult not to think about the Stanley Cup final.
“We’re a confident group right now,” Carter said. “We’ll be ready to go.”