Kings–Rangers Rivalry

Lore & Background

The rivalry's modern chapter was written between 2014 and 2016, when the Kings and Rangers met in the Western Conference Semifinals three consecutive Aprils. In each series, Los Angeles edged out New York, and the cumulative effect transformed what had been a polite same-division rivalry into something personal. Rangers fans, accustomed to their team's status as a perennial contender, found themselves repeatedly eliminated by a Kings squad that was leaner, more physical, and playing in front of a raucous home crowd at the Staples Center. The Kings, meanwhile, saw the Rangers as the division rival that kept them honest all season, a team that could beat them in the regular schedule but ultimately could not survive the seven-game grind.

The emotional texture of the rivalry was shaped by its star players. Anze Kopitar, with his quiet intensity and relentless two-way play, became the face of the Kings' playoff runs, while Henrik Lundqvist's leadership and late-season heroics made the Rangers a team that refused to go quietly. The contrast—Kopitar's cerebral patience versus Lundqvist's explosive bursts—gave the rivalry a narrative spine that fans on both sides could latch onto.

By the mid-2020s the rivalry had cooled somewhat as rosters turned over and the Rangers' competitive window shifted, but the memory of those three semis remains. Kings fans still reference the 2016 clinch; Rangers fans still talk about the games they lost by a goal. The Pacific Division calendar ensures the teams still meet four or five times a season, and the old fire never fully goes out.

In Their Own Story

The arena hums before the puck drops. It's a Tuesday in March, the Pacific Division race is down to the wire, and the Kings are hosting the Rangers. The ice is fresh, the boards still gleaming, and the crowd noise is a low, constant roar that you feel in your sternum more than hear with your ears. A Kings winger checks a Rangers defenseman into the boards with a shoulder that echoes off the rafters, and the section behind the net erupts. The Rangers' captain skates to the bench, jaw tight, and the Kings' center—number 83—skates past him without a glance, already reading the next cycle. The puck bounces off a skate, off the ice, off a stick blade, and the whole building holds its breath for one half-second before the next hit. This is what the rivalry looks like up close: not fireworks, but a slow, grinding pressure that builds over twenty minutes, over four games, over three Aprils, until someone finally breaks.

Reader's Guide

The rivalry was forged in the Pacific Division's tight race for playoff seeding, but it was cemented in the 2014–2016 stretch when the Kings and Rangers met in the Western Conference Semifinals three straight years. In 2014, Los Angeles took the series in five, with Kopitar and Doughty controlling the tempo and the Kings' defensive structure suffocating New York's transition game. The 2015 series went seven games and became a slugfest—penalties, fights, and a Kings goaltending performance that held up under the pressure of Game 7. By 2016, the Rangers arrived as a top-seeded team with a star-laden roster, but the Kings' physicality and playoff experience told the story again, and the final whistle in Los Angeles sent the Rangers home for the third consecutive April.

The emotional stakes were asymmetric. For the Kings, each series was a validation of a rebuilding project that had finally reached the deep postseason. For the Rangers, each elimination felt like a pattern, a division rival that simply would not let them through. The 2024 first-round meeting rekindled the old tension, with the Kings once again prevailing in a tight series and reminding New York fans that the Pacific Division grudge was not yet settled.

Today the rivalry is quieter than its 2014–2016 peak, rosters have turned over, and the Rangers' competitive window has shifted. But the regular-season meetings still carry an edge, and the memory of those three semis ensures that when the Kings and Rangers share ice, the crowd noise runs a half-decibel louder than any other division matchup.

Did You Know?

• The Kings and Rangers met in the Western Conference Semifinals three consecutive years (2014, 2015, 2016), with Los Angeles winning every series.
• Anze Kopitar and Henrik Lundqvist were the respective franchise anchors during the rivalry's most intense stretch, making each series a de facto duel of their playstyles.
• Because both teams share the Pacific Division, they face each other multiple times every regular season, meaning the rivalry is not just a playoff story but a weekly regular-season confrontation as well.
• The 2015 series went the full seven games, making it the most physically punishing and emotionally charged of the three consecutive matchups.