Stats & Such (Small sample size warning. Fancy stats courtesy War on Ice)
Team
Kings
Lightning
Record
13-8-0
10-9-3
Points
26
23
Division Rank
1st
5th
Streak
Won 1
Won 2
Goals For/Game
2.57
2.41
Goals Against/Game
2.19
2.27
ES Goal %
47.5
50.7
ES Shot %
53.5
50.7
ES PDO
98.5
101.3
ES Corsi %
56.4
52.0
ES Fenwick %
55.7
51.7
ES Scoring Chance %
55.3
50.3
ES High-Danger SC %
53.5
49.9
Power Play % (Rank)
19.4 (15th)
19.1 (16th)
Penalty Kill % (Rank)
84.3 (7th)
81.3 (13th)
Starting Goalie (tonight)
Quick
Bishop
Goalie Record
10-7-0
8-7-2
Save %
.915
.925
ES Save %
.921
.937
Notes:
It's the eve of American Thanksgiving and the Kings will wrap up their Eastern conference road trip with a game in Tampa tonight. After this game they'll have off until Saturday.
Their opponent tonight is last year's Stanley Cup runners-up, and like many of their recent peers the Lightning are having some trouble getting going in the following season. They sit just one game above .500, fifth place even in a fairly bad Atlantic division. Their advanced stats are down slightly (53% to 52 in even strength Corsi, 53.1 to 51.7 in Fenwick, and a big drop from 54% to 50.3% in scoring chances) and the team just hasn't appeared to be the same as last year's so far. Of late though they've been turning things around a bit, winners in their last two games.
They've also been bitten by the injury bug a great deal lately, with Drouin, Palat, Tyler Johnson, Paquette, and Ohlund all missing time. It sounds like Johnson could return tonight (though it is not a guarantee) which would be a big boost for them, but the rest remain farther off.
Looks like no lineup changes for the Kings coming off the win in south Florida. Which is, you know, whatever. Andy Andreoff on the third line is very much Not Good but what can you do.
I have shockingly little to say about this game so let's move straight to what Mega Man opponent are you, Lightning?? The Lightning are: QUICK MAN!!! When the Lightning are playing their best hockey (and not, like, missing all their young children due to injury) they're undoubtedly a very fast team. In addition, you would probably call lightning itself a fast-moving phenomena. Quick Man comes to us from 1988's iconic Mega Man 2. Like the Lightning, when Quick Man is on his game he is pretty difficult to defeat; for one, he's the only Robot Master in the entire history of the franchise who is impossible to beat with just his weakness! This is due to the fact that his weakness is the Time Stopper, a weapon that can be fired only once. The Time Stopper does damage equal to half of Quick Man's health, which means you still need to use something else to take care of the rest. Along with his speed and semi-homing boomerangs (which he throws four of at a time), he's one of the toughest Robot Masters in the entire series. Fittingly enough, he would reappear in the Super Mario Kart rip-off Mega Man: Battle & Chase to put his speed to a different use. If you defeat him in a race he'll exclaim "My pride! You've hurt me where I can be hurt the most!", leaving you to live with the guilt of hurting the pride of a robot in a video game for the rest of your life.
PREDICTION: Kings win 3-2. Four words: Andy Andreoff hat trick.
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