D.J. Smith hopes to kickstart Kings vs. NHL-best Avalanche
The Los Angeles Kings will have a new coach behind the bench when they host the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.
Jim Hiller was fired Sunday morning and replaced by D.J. Smith, who will try to kickstart a team that's just three points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference with 23 games remaining.
"At this point in the season, we believe a change in leadership is necessary to give our group the best opportunity to reach its potential and compete at the level we expect," Kings general manager Ken Holland said. "These decisions are never made lightly, but our responsibility is to position this team for success now and moving forward."
Los Angeles may have sealed Hiller's fate in the two games coming out of the three-week pause in the schedule for the Milan Cortina Olympics.
In the first game back, the Kings hosted the Vegas Golden Knights, who were without five key players still resetting after participating in the Olympic gold-medal game, and lost 6-4.
The following night, Los Angeles hosted another team playing the second game of a back-to-back set and were blown out 8-1 by the Edmonton Oilers, its most one-sided loss of the season.
The Kings managed a 2-0 win against the visiting Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon, but it appears the decision was already made.
"Sometimes, when losses pile up like that, you feel like you can't get out of it," Kings forward Alex Laferriere said after the Calgary game. "But, there's so many games in the year that you know you're going to get a win, eventually."
Smith, who was head coach of the Ottawa Senators from May 23, 2019 to Dec. 18, 2023, will have a tough task in his first game back as a head coach, going up against the No. 1 team in the NHL.
The Avalanche have won two of three coming out of the break and have shown little difficulty beating the Kings in their first two meetings this season. The Kings lost 4-1 to the Avalanche in the season opener in Los Angeles, and 5-2 on Dec. 29 in Denver.
Colorado most recently toppled the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 on Saturday night.
"I think out of the first three games, like, that's the tightest we've been defensively," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said after the win. "I think that that was a really good sort of first step coming out of the break on how we'd like to get in attack mode."
Gavin Brindley broke a 1-1 tie with a goal at 7:31 of the third period, ending a 25-game goal drought. Cale Makar then sealed it with an empty-netter, his second goal of the game.
"That was just a big one, confidence-wise," said Brindley, who played just five shifts in the game totaling 3:26. "Hopefully, keep going."
Nathan MacKinnon continues to lead the Avalanche with 40 goals, but he's been piling up the assists coming out of the break, tallying two in each of the first three games back.
The Avalanche are 1-for-10 on the power play in the three games after the break, including 0-for-7 in the past two games, although Makar did score his first goal on Saturday night four seconds after a power play expired.
"They got us a huge goal and it took 2:04 to get it," Bednar joked.