The fact Saturday's Kings-Sharks game was being played outside and had all of the fesitivies that go with the NHL's Winter Classic and Stadium Series games made it easy to overlook the fact that this was a huge game in the Western Conference playoff race.
That was going to be true whether it was played in front 70,000 people at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, or in front of 19,000 people at the SAP Center in San Jose.
Entering the night separated by just two points in the standings, with one team in a playoff position and one team on the outside looking in, it was a classic four-point game between two rivals in a rematch of last year's first-round playoff series that saw the Kings erase a 3-0 series deficit.
And in classic Kings fashion, they're coming back just when everybody started to count them out.
Again.
They extended their league-best winning streak to seven games with an impressive 2-1 win over the Sharks in the 2015 Stadium Series game.
The win not only extended their winning streak, it also helped them jump over the Sharks in the NHL Wild Card race and move into the third playoff spot in the Pacific Division, knocking San to the ninth place spot in the Western Conference -- currently out of the playoffs -- behind Winnipeg and Calgary, the two teams currently occupying the Wild Card spots in the West.
Marian Gaborik scored what proved to be the game-winning goal early in the third period when he capitalized on a neutral zone turnover by the Sharks and blasted a shot behind goalie Antti Niemi.
Kyle Clifford also scored in the win, while Brent Burns tallied the lone goal for the Sharks.
What we have now are two teams going in complete opposite directions at a key time of the season.
While the Kings look unbeatable at the moment, the Sharks have now lost eight of their past 11 games. When that streak started at the beginning of the month, the Sharks were in second place in the Pacific Division and had a six-point advantage over the Kings in the playoff race. That is usually a significant advantage, and one that is rarely made up this late in the season. With the NHL's three-point game setup and the fact that team you're chasing isn't always going to lose on the same day that you win it makes it very difficult to gain ground. For it to happen you need the perfect combination of one team completely unraveling at the exact same time that another one goes on a tear.
That is pretty much what has happened over the past three weeks. And not only have the Kings caught up to the Sharks, they have still played three fewer games.
The scary thing for the Sharks -- and the rest of the Western Conference -- is that we have seen this movie before when it comes to the Kings.
Whether it was rolling through the playoffs in 2012 as a No. 8 seed, or storming back against the Sharks in the first round last season on their way to a second championship in three years, or coming back when their playoff chances seemed slim this season, this is simply a team you can never count out, no matter how bad things may appear to be.
At different times this season the Kings haven't looked like the mini-dynasty they've been over the past several seasons. They haven't always been as solid defensively. Jonathan Quick has had his moments of poor play. They started the season struggling to dominate the puck possession game, an area in which they excelled more than any other team in the league over the past three years.
But as the season has progressed they have slowly but surely started to resemble, well ... the Kings.
The possession game is back, the wins are returning, and if they can swing the right deal at the trade deadline again a lot of teams in the Western Conference should be very, very nervous about potentially seeing them in the playoffs.
