2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Avalanche vs. Kings series preview
Colorado Avalanche: 1st in Central Division, 121 points
Los Angeles Kings: 2nd Western Conference Wild Card, 90 points
Schedule (ET)
| Date | Game | Time (ET) |
| Sunday, April 19 | 1. Los Angeles at Colorado | 3:00 PM |
| Tuesday, April 21 | 2. Los Angeles at Colorado | 10:00 PM |
| Thursday, April 23 | 3. Colorado at Los Angeles | 10:00 PM |
| Sunday, April 26 | 4. Colorado at Los Angeles | 4:30 PM |
| Wednesday, April 29 | 5. Los Angeles at Colorado* | TBD |
| Friday, May 1 | 6. Colorado at Los Angeles* | TBD |
| Sunday, May 3 | 7. Los Angeles at Colorado* | TBD |
*if necessary
The Skinny
The Avalanche may as well have had their playoff spot locked up by the end of October. Outside of a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Oct. 25, the Avalanche didn’t lose in regulation for the first two months of the season, the next one coming on Dec. 4 against the New York Islanders. Colorado then went undefeated in regulation for another month, and come the 40-game mark, they were 31-2-7.
From that point on, the Avalanche were in cruise control. A 24-14-4 record is far from a bad one for a playoff team, and it was enough for them to lock down the Presidents’ Trophy with almost no contention. They loaded up at the Trade Deadline, particularly down the middle with Nazem Kadri and Nicolas Roy, and now they enter the playoffs as the Stanley Cup favorite. But the Presidents’ Trophy has been a burden to carry for most teams these days…
The Kings had a much weirder season. Their record alone would sum up a lot of it. 35-27-20. Only 22 regulation wins. An NHL-record 33 trips to overtime this season. It was certainly the most mediocre showing we’ve seen from this current core of the Kings.
But with longtime legend Anze Kopitar set to retire after this season, the Kings wanted another kick at the can to make sure Kopitar’s career ended in the playoffs, regardless of what side of the handshake he was on. That appeared to be in jeopardy going into February, but a coaching change and a blockbuster deal to acquire Artemi Panarin gave Los Angeles enough momentum to get across the finish line. Of course, Panarin’s addition makes little impact in the overall improvement of this roster: he essentially replaced Kevin Fiala, who sustained a regular-season-ending injury at the Olympics.
The good news for the Kings is that, for the first time since 2018, they will have a different playoff opponent than the Edmonton Oilers. Stuck in a perpetual first-round matchup with the Oilers, the Kings found themselves on the losing end all four times and unable to gain any momentum in the playoffs. The bad news? The Avalanche aren’t exactly a better matchup.
Head to Head
Colorado: 3-0-0
Los Angeles: 0-3-0
The season series was about as one-sided as you’d expect it to be. The Avalanche took all three games by scores of 4-1, 5-2 and 4-2, with the latter two being one-goal games before the Kings pulled the goalie. And this wasn’t an instance of the Kings catching the Avs when they were hot, as the three games were spread throughout the season in October, December and March.
Nathan MacKinnon had six points in the three games, Martin Necas scored four goals, and all four goalies between the two teams got into the action. The only unknown surrounding the matchup between these two teams is they didn’t play any games after the Trade Deadline (although the March game did feature Panarin). Regardless, it leans heavily in favor of the Avalanche.
Top Five Scorers
Colorado
Nathan MacKinnon, 127 pts
Martin Necas, 100 pts
Cale Makar, 79 pts
Brock Nelson, 65 pts
Nazem Kadri, 50 pts
Los Angeles
Artemi Panarin, 84 pts
Adrian Kempe, 73 pts
Quinton Byfield, 49 pts
Alex Laferriere, 44 pts
Kevin Fiala/Brandt Clarke, 40 pts
Offense
There’s no series in the first round which will see such a wider margin in offensive skill. That’s not just in comparison to each other: the Avalanche finished the year with the most goals per game (3.63), and the Kings had the fourth-worst (2.68) and the worst of any playoff team. They are at least a little bit better at generating chances, as they were 18th in 5v5 expected goals for per 60 minutes with 2.73, although it was still third-worst among playoff teams. But once again, they’re outmatched by the Avs, who were tied for first with 3.33. The only aspect where the two teams were close was on the power play, as the Avalanche were 27th (17.1%) while the Kings were 28th (17%). That said, the Avs improved a bit more in that regard after the deadline (21.4%), while the Kings remained stagnant (16.7%).
As it has for the past seven seasons, the Avalanche offense runs through MacKinnon and Makar. It’s an immediately unfair matchup for any team, as they have to shut down two players who consistently challenge for the title of the best at their respective positions. MacKinnon’s brute-force skating could terrify the toughest and the fastest players, while Makar almost plays like a fourth forward from the back end to a level we haven’t seen since Bobby Orr.
While Mikko Rantanen was the third head of the Avalanche’s King Ghidorah for years, his replacement in Necas has fit the bill. If last season didn’t impress enough, he hit the 100 point mark in 2025-26 to prove to everyone this is who he is now. Add in the veteran center depth of Nelson and Kadri, power forwards Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen and the feel-good story that is Gabriel Landeskog, and several wild cards like Parker Kelly, Jack Drury, Ross Colton, Gavin Brindley and Logan O’Connor, and Colorado’s forward depth is up there with the best in the league.
The Avalanche offense is boosted by a deep blueline full of puck-movers. Makar is the staple of it, but longtime defense partner Devon Toews can move the puck as well as he can keep it out of his own net. Sam Malinski has been a breakout for Colorado this season, and additions Nick Blankenburg and Brett Kulak have proven to be sneaky-good adds for their system. Even 41-year-old Brent Burns, a shell of his prime years, had his best season in a few years with the Avs.
Speaking of bluelines, the Kings’ has the exact opposite effect on their respective offense. Once the staple of this core, downgrading their defensemen to the likes of Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin and Joel Edmundson have kept their defensive game intact but provided almost no puck-moving ability from the back end. Brandt Clarke has proven to be a strong offensive defender for Los Angeles, but he’s on an island. Even Mikey Anderson and Drew Doughty, both capable defensemen, lack in that regard as well.
Not only is the blueline a hinderance for the Kings, but they don’t boast a ton of offensive weapons in their forward group. Panarin has been as good as advertised with 27 points in 26 games since the trade, and to give some credit to the Kings, their offense jumped up to three goals per game since then. He joins Kempe, who is one of the league’s most underrated goal-scorers but, beyond those two, there aren’t a lot of certainties in the forward group.
Take Byfield for example. The 2020 second-overall pick has shown signs of living up to his pedigree but still hasn’t come close to his ceiling. Laferriere has been a pleasant surprise, and may be just as good as his homophonous counterpart in Alexis Lafreniere despite going 82 picks later in the the same draft, but isn’t a top scoring option either. Kopitar isn’t the consistent 60-70 point scorer he was in his prime, and Trevor Moore and Andrei Kuzmenko have only shown flashes of consistency in recent years. Even with Fiala’s inconsistencies, he’ll still be missed in an offense needing every option it can get, especially against a team as deep as the Avalanche.
Defense
If there is any part of the Kings’ game where they can match the Avalanche, it’s their defensive game. That doesn’t necessarily show in the goals department, as Colorado was the top team in goals against per game this season (2.4), while Los Angeles was tied for seventh (2.9). But analytically, they were dead even, as the two tied for fourth in 5v5 expected goals against per 60 minutes with 2.5. The same can’t be said for their penalty kills, though. The Avs were first with a 84.6% success rate, while the Kings were 30th at 74.6%.
What the Kings lack in puck movement on their blueline, they make up for with defensive ability. In fact, among their defensemen to play at least 15 games, none of them had a negative defensive impact based on Evolving Hockey’s regularized adjusted plus-minus model. Doughty (-0.157 5v5 RAPM xGA/60) and Ceci (-0.087) were the best in that regard, but Anderson (-0.069), Clarke (-0.048) and Dumoulin (-0.047) are also capable options for their top four. Edmundson is better suited for a depth role overall, but his -0.02 rating is still great by bottom pair standards. Jacob Moverare matches him in that regard and will be an easy insert into L.A.’s lineup in the event of an injury.
The same goes for Los Angeles’ forwards. It’s not an explosive offensive group, but they make up for it with their tight defensive play. Highlighted by Kopitar (-0.107 5v5 RAPM xGA/60), Moore (-0.054) and Laferriere (-0.034) in their top six, and Samuel Helenius (-0.137), Jared Wright (-0.12), Joel Armia (-0.06) and new additions Mathieu Joseph (-0.11) & Scott Laughton (-0.101) in their bottom six, the Kings thrive because of a strong defensive system put in place by Jim Hiller and carried over by D.J. Smith. The Avalanche won’t have an easy time generating offense if this group is operating well.
But again, it’s not like the Avalanche are lacking in defense, either. They do have a couple more defensive holes on their blueline, most notably Burns (0.091 5v5 RAPM xGA/60) and Makar (0.029), but you’d imagine Makar will step up his game come playoff time in that regard. Even then, between Malinski (-0.261), Josh Manson (-0.161), Toews (-0.111) and Blankenburg (-0.053), they have plenty of options to cover up those problems.
The same goes for Colorado’s forward group. While they have a few more holes, particularly with some of their stars in MacKinnon (0.112 5v5 RAPM xGA/60), Kadri (0.089) and Necas (0.072), they boast plenty of defensively strong forwards. Drury (-0.261), Kelly (-0.195), Joel Kiviranta (-0.126), Nichushkin (-0.12) and Zakhar Bardakov (-0.112) are certainly their best options in that regard, while O’Connor (-0.051), Nelson and Roy (both -0.042) are no slouches, either.
Of course, there’s one major difference between these two defensive groups. The Avalanche have to defend the Kings’ middling offense. Los Angeles has to defend against the onslaught which is Colorado’s attack.
Goaltending
If you told someone at the start of the season that the Avalanche and Kings would meet in the first round, they’d probably guess the starting goalies would be Mackenzie Blackwood and Darcy Kuemper after their stellar debut seasons with their respective new teams in 2024-25. But as the playoffs begin this weekend, there’s a good chance it may be the backups in Scott Wedgewood and Anton Forsberg who may be the Game 1 starters.
For the Avs, it’s been apparent all season that Wedgewood is their guy right now. An offseason surgery kept Blackwood out of the lineup for the first month of the season, giving Wedgewood the reins during the Avalanche’s hottest stretch of play. While the team never gave one goalie more playing time over the other over the course of the season, it was clear that Wedgewood was playing better hockey, as his .921 save percentage and 20.73 5v5 goals saved above expected were much better than Blackwood’s .904 and 13.49. That said, Blackwood should be more than capable of getting the job done in relief if Wedgewood struggles.
As for the Kings, Forsberg’s rise to the starting gig has been more of a recent development. Fresh off being named a Vezina finalist last season, Kuemper was expected to be L.A.’s No. 1 goalie, while Forsberg would be the backup. Some regression was expected from Kuemper, but he struggled with an .891 SV% and 8.74 5v5 GSAx, while Forsberg thrived with a .910 SV% and 19.71 5v5 GSAx. After the Olympic break, the duo became a tandem, each playing 14 games, and Forsberg significantly outplayed Kuemper down the stretch when locking up their playoff spot. Forsberg should be expected to get the start in Game 1, but don’t be surprised if the Kings return to Kuemper at the first sign of struggles.
Injuries
While it’s always tough to navigate injuries during the final week of the regular season, as some players get benched to avoid injuries, it appears that the Avalanche just have two injuries entering this series. Kadri has missed the last five games with a finger injury, and while his original timeline was he’d be back before the playoffs, that did not happen. However, with the lack of an update on the injury, I doubt it’s gotten worse, so I’d expect him back in time for the playoffs. Similarly, Manson has missed the last three games with an upper-body injury, but is only day-to-day, so he should probably be back in short order.
The Kings are a bit more banged up. Most notable is Fiala, who sustained a leg fracture during the Olympics. His timeline was only “out for the regular season,” with an re-evaluation expected shortly to see when he could return to the playoffs. However, a return in this series appears to be optimistic. Kuzmenko is in a similar position, as he underwent surgery for a torn meniscus and was out for the regular season. There are no current reports about a return, but he has been skating recently. Los Angeles is also without Alex Turcotte (missed three games with undisclosed injury) and Jeff Malott (four games with abdominal discomfort), but they’re out on a day-to-day basis.
Intangibles
The Presidents’ Trophy always casts a tall shadow, and that will remain the case for the Avalanche. The NHL hasn’t seen a team finish on top in the regular season and the playoffs since the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013, and not in an 82-game season since the Detroit Red Wings in 2008. In fact, those have been the only two instances of Presidents’ Trophy and Stanley Cup winners in the salary-cap era. The same goes for Presidents’ Trophy winners run away with the award and hit the 120-point mark, as the last six teams to do so made it past the second round. The Presidents’ Trophy is less a curse and more a regression, so only time will tell if Colorado got hot at the wrong time this season. We all remember the recent playoff failures of the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning or the 2023 Bruins. Will the Avalanche fall down the same path?
While the story for the Kings will be all about Kopitar’s final games, the real question should be what becomes of the core after his retirement. Once considered a team with a deep prospect pool, Los Angeles missed the mark on many of their top picks and have stagnated as a good, but not great team. That’s resulted in playoff struggles, as they have yet to win a round since their 2014 Stanley Cup victory, and a team already weak down the middle will soon be without their longtime top pivot. Yes, this playoff run is Kopitar’s last kick at the can that is the playoffs, but it may also be the case for the rest of the team.
X-Factor
As mentioned before, the only element of the Kings’ game which comes close to the Avalanche’s game is their defensive play. If Los Angeles wants any chance of putting up a fight in this series, they need to not only play Colorado even on defense, but they need Panarin and Kempe to play like the players who are set to make a combined $21.625 million next season. Both have been solid playoff performers in their career, as Kempe has 29 points in 28 games while Panarin has 61 points in 73 games, but they need this duo to go full nuclear to combat the storm that will be MacKinnon, Makar, Necas and company.
Series Prediction
A lot has been made of the “pillow fight” that was the Pacific Division this season, but there was no greater pillow fight than the one for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. Not only were the teams duking it out for the spot mediocre at best, but with the Avalanche cruising to a Presidents’ Trophy win all season, the second Wild Card spot felt like, to quote Darryl Sutter, a waste of eight days for whoever landed there.
While the Kings’ defensive play gives them a slight edge to punch up compared to the other teams in the late-season playoff race, this does feel like a series which will end in short order. The Avalanche might not win games by scoring a ton of goals in this series, but they should still pull through and give themselves a few days to rest before a much tougher matchup against whoever comes out of the series between the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild.
Avalanche in five games.
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