Kings clinch second West wild card, will face Avalanche in Round 1 of playoffs
We now know who the best team in the NHL will meet in the opening round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After Thursday night’s results, the Los Angeles Kings have secured the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. With that, they are given the daunting task of entering the Central Division playoffs, with their first-round opponent being the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.
That said, hockey fans in Hollywood should rejoice, as the Kings will be playing someone other than the Edmonton Oilers for the first time since 2018, when they lost to the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in the first round. Los Angeles has met the Oilers in the Pacific Division Semifinals in each of the previous four years, losing each time.
While the 2025-26 season was far from the success the team has experienced over its history, the Kings are trying to make this run somewhat memorable, especially since this is captain Anze Kopitar’s last season with the club. While the team struggled for long stretches of the season, including firing Jim Hiller last month, L.A. managed to clinch a spot in the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season, something the franchise hasn’t done since the Stanley Cup years.
The Kings will look to pull off an upset in the first round of the playoffs and win a series for the first time since the organization last lifted Lord Stanley 12 years ago.
It won’t be easy because the Kings are facing an Avalanche team determined to get back to the top of the mountain. Led by Hart Trophy candidate Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado has been the best team in the league from the onset of the season. While they weren’t able to break any league records, the Avs finished atop the toughest division in the NHL and earned the league’s best record for the fourth time in franchise history, and first since the COVID-shortened 2021 season.
It’s been a long time since these two teams have met in the playoffs. The Avalanche ousted the Kings in a pair of seven-game series in 2001 and 2002.