Los Angeles Kings v San Jose Sharks (SAP Center)
Time: 7:00 PM
TV: CBC, CNBC, RDS2, Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: Fear the Fin
Sharks (projected) lineup:
Pavelski-Thornton-Burns
Marleau-Couture-Nieto
Hertl-Sheppard-Wingels
Torres-Desjardins-Brown
Vlasic-Demers
Stuart-Braun
Hannan-Boyle
Niemi
Injured: Adam Burish; Scratched: Martin Havlat, Tyler Kennedy, Matt Irwin, Matt Tennyson
Kings (projected) lineup:
Gaborik-Kopitar-Brown
Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
King-Stoll-Williams
Clifford-Richards-Lewis
Muzzin-Doughty
Regehr-Voynov
Mitchell-Martinez
Quick
Injured: n/a; Scratched: Matt Greene, Jordan Nolan, Colin Fraser
Game Notes:
- Hooray, they won a game!! Can they win two? Three? Four?? Mike Richards made a great defensive play last game and almost scored a goal, so clearly up is down and everything is possible now.
- Go check out Robert’s twitter for some of the stats from the first four games of the series. They are…not promising for the Kings. Nick also has the scoring chances at 92-43 (61-30 EV) for San Jose in the series, which is almost physically painfully bad. For me, the best part of this series so far has been that I could hide my head and turn off my tv when I wanted to. I think we need to take up a collection for the guys for dealing with the pain of having to watch every second thus far.
- Luckily, the thing about those four game numbers is: lol who cares. Any stretch of four games is not super indicative of the overall quality of a team (as opposed to how they played for those four games), and a four-game stretch encompassing two games in which the Kings played 120 full minutes with their heads literally stuck up their butts was never going to yield numbers which weren’t laughable.
- Speaking of Richards, he helped the Kings’ fourth line overwhelm the Sharks’ fourth line last game, which was a welcome and much-needed relief. While it may have just been the dead cat bounce/fear of being swept in ignominious fashion, the more balanced forward lines seemed much better equipped to handle the Sharks’ attack in Game 4. It’s good to see that the lines will remain the same for Game 5.
- The brief injury/absence of Drew Doughty led to a few hairy minutes for the Kings last game. I haven’t seen any information about how he’s doing, but I assume that unless his shoulder is no longer attached to his body, he will tell everyone that he is totally fine and he needs to play a minimum of thirty minutes tonight.
- A reminder that Dan Boyle hurt Anze Kopitar last game and therefore we should all endeavour to ensure that he knows and feels eternal pain.
- ~Fun With Numbers~~ from Extra Skater. Slava Voynov…woof.
- Prediction: Kings win and remain the greatest, now & forever. Also, I will ban anyone who sincerely uses the words “reverse sweep” in the comments.