Kings–Avs Rivalry

Lore & Background

The rivalry's roots are less a single trade or brawl and more a slow-burning tension of identity. Los Angeles built its modern era around a glamorous, fast-skating identity crowned by the 2012 Cup run featuring Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, and Jonathan Quick. Colorado, meanwhile, carried the weight of the 2001 dynasty—Sakic, Forsberg, Roy—and then reasserted itself with the 2022 title. When the two teams collide in the playoffs, it is a collision of eras: the West Coast's cinematic swagger against the Mountain West's relentless, physical grind.

The 2020s turned occasional regular-season meetings into a recurring postseason fixture. Each series brought a different flavor—tight first rounds, a grueling Western Conference Final—but the through-line was the same: both teams played with a desperation that told you they understood what the other represented. For LA fans, the Avs were the team that kept standing between them and the Cup. For Denver fans, the Kings were the flashy outsider who needed to be reminded that altitude and grit still matter.

The rivalry also lives in the small details: the way Kings fans chant in the bright lights of Crypto.com Arena, the way Avs fans pack the Ball Arena with a mountain-town ferocity. It is a rivalry of culture as much as hockey, and that is what makes it endure beyond any single series result.

In Their Own Story

The ice at Ball Arena is different. You feel it in your knees, in the way the puck sits a half-inch lower, in the way a slap shot carries an extra two miles per hour because the air is thinner and the world is smaller. A Kings center drops the puck at center ice, and the first Avs forechecker is already there—shoulder to chest, stick in the crease, the kind of hit that makes the crowd in the upper deck exhale as one. The Kings player absorbs it, rolls, gets up. The Avs captain is already skating back, jaw set, eyes flat. In the third period, with the score knotted and the arena shaking, a Kings winger threads a pass through the slot and buries it top shelf. The Ball Arena goes quiet for one heartbeat, then erupts in a sound like wind off the Rockies. Across the ice, the Kings bench is a tangle of arms and helmets. This is what May is for. This is why the rivalry has teeth.

Reader's Guide

The Kings–Avs rivalry was never born from a single trade or a single brawl. It grew from geography and identity: the Pacific Division's sun-drenched, fast-paced hockey against the Central Division's altitude-hardened, physical style. Los Angeles is a team that performs for a crowd; Denver is a team that grinds the crowd into the seats.

The rivalry sharpened in the 2020s, when the two clubs met repeatedly in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Each series carried the weight of what the other meant: for the Kings, the Avs were the mountain they had to climb; for Colorado, LA was the flashy rival who had to be grounded. The 2022 and 2024 playoff meetings in particular showed the rivalry at its peak—tight, physical, decided by single goals in overtime or late third-period scrambles.

The emotional stakes are real. Kings fans in the bright, packed arena feel the rivalry as a statement: the West Coast can beat the mountain. Avs fans in Denver feel it as a reminder: altitude and grit still rule. Both fanbases carry the series into the next season, the next regular-season meeting, the next May.

Today the rivalry sits in a holding pattern—two strong Western Conference teams who know that when the bracket brings them together, the ice will be different, the hits will be harder, and the crowd will be louder. The next meeting will write the next chapter, and both sides will be ready.

Did You Know?

• The Kings' 2012 Stanley Cup victory and the Avs' 2022 title mean both clubs carry championship hardware into their playoff meetings, making each series a clash of reigning and former champions.
• The roughly 900-mile distance between Los Angeles and Denver means road games for either team involve a significant time-zone and travel adjustment, adding a logistical layer to the rivalry.
• Colorado plays at an elevation of approximately 5,280 feet, a factor players and fans alike cite as a tangible advantage in the second and third periods of road games.
• The rivalry's intensity in the 2020s made it one of the most-watched Western Conference playoff series in recent NHL history, drawing large television audiences for each game.