Are the Los Angeles Kings getting hot at the right time?

The Los Angeles Kings defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-3 Monday night, extending their winning streak to five games and helping them clinch a berth in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

While the Kings struggled for large chunks of the season, leading to the firing of Jim Hiller in March and D.J. Smith being named his replacement, they’ve managed to string together enough wins and points via overtime and shootout losses to earn a playoff spot for the fifth consecutive year.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Los Angeles’ recent winning streak and if they can be a factor in this spring’s postseason.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Where are the Kings going to finish? They’re the team with two games remaining on their schedule, they could still technically catch the Utah Mammoth in the Wildcard, they could catch the Anaheim Ducks, and they could catch the Edmonton Oilers, but they don’t have the tiebreaker to catch the Vegas Golden Knights.

Still, L.A. are 7-1-2 in their last 10, they’ve won five in a row. What’s your read on the Kings right now? Is it just a blip or are they truly getting hot at the right time?

Carter Hutton: I think they’re getting hot at the right time. I think they’re getting good goaltending, and this is the conversation we touched on, yesterday. Look at Anton Forsberg, he’s got five straight wins. If you look at who were the better players in their wins, his name his highlighted.

Again, this is a team that if you look back at last year, with the way Darcy Kuemper was Vezina Trophy worthy, it was a difference maker. I still feel like they’re a little bit of “frauds.” I don’t know how much noise they’re going to be able to make in the playoffs when I look at that back end, it’s very, very concerning for me.

But they’re in and I know they didn’t do it in regulation, and I know they did a lot of their work in overtime, and they got that loser point a lot, but that being said, the rules are the rules, buddy. You gotta find a way to get in, and they did that. Right now, they’re peaking at the right time, and it will be interesting to see the jockeying of position with the Utah Mammoth.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…