The leading goal scorer, #1 goalie, shutdown Center and #1 PK d-man are now out with significant injuries. The easiest part of the schedule is gone and they're sitting in 9th place. If you think the effort put forth in the last 18 games is good enough to get the team into the Playoffs with Scrivens and Jones in net, it might be time to take off the purple and yellow tinted glasses.
The sky isn't falling but if they continue to show up for 40 minutes a night they'll CONTINUE to be on the outside of the Top 8 come April.
Carter could be back this road trip, so even if he's not, he won't be out long. We are 2-1-1 in the games he has missed.
We have no clue how long Quick is out, so maybe try waiting until we know the details?
Shutdown centre? That is Stoll I assume? To me, the shutdown centre is Richards, and he's doing quite fine in that regard.
#1 PK D-man being Greene? In ice time, yes, but in the three games he's missed, LA has killed eight out of nine shorthanded situations, which is a success rate of 88.9 per cent. Only two teams in the league have a better success rate than that and that is 8.6 per cent above the season average for the Kings.
The easiest part of the schedule to you is gone, but the Kings sit with a .639 winning percentage. Last full season (2011-2012) that winning percentage would give a team 105 points and fifth overall in the league. We'd have won the division by nine points.
Btw, Scrivens did excellent in his stint as a starter in Toronto last year when Reimer went down. I suspect the Leafs fans were screaming the same doom and gloom as you when Reimer got hurt. Guess who made the playoffs?
If you honestly think a .639 winning percentage will not get a team into the playoffs come the end of the season I'd bet my house on it because it'd be the easiest bet I've ever won.