Los Angeles Kings v Calgary Flames (Staples Center)
Time: 7.30 PM
TV: Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: Matchsticks & Gasoline
Flames (projected) lineup:
Glencross-Backlund-Stempniak
Galiardi-Colborne-Bouma
Baertschi-Monahan-Hudler
Jackman-Street-McGrattan
Giordano-Brodie
Wideman-Russell
Butler-O’Brien
Ramo
Injured: Mike Cammalleri, David Jones, Matt Stajan; Scratched: Christopher Breen
Kings (projected) lineup:
Brown-Kopitar-Williams
Carcillo-Richards-Carter
King-Stoll-Lewis
Clifford-Fraser-Nolan
Regehr-Doughty
Mitchell-Voynov
Muzzin-Greene
Quick
Game notes:
- I can’t even joke about the Flames roster. I’m not a complete monster.
- I pointed out Jamie Kompon’s evil curse on the powerplay and then it got better! Because the Kings were playing the Stars, who are terrible! Luckily, the Flames are also terrible.
- To be fair, the Flames had some surprising semi-success to start the season, but the thing is that “tries really hard” can only overcome “actually good at hockey” for so long. Joey Macdonald didn’t magically become a good NHL starter. The Flames might have the worst fourth line in hockey. Sean Monahan is shooting like 600% or something. Yeah, okay.
- The last two games the Flames have played, they got bounced by the Ducks 3-2 and the Sharks 6-3. So…it would be good if the Kings won this very winnable game tonight.
- What would be a boost is if Mike Cammalleri, who’s been out this entire season thus far while nursing a hand injury, makes it back into the lineup. If so, Tim Jackman likely gets scratched and I assume the bottom-six gets shuffled around a bit.
- Coach Sutter continues his “win and you’re in” philosophy for the skaters, keeping the lineup that trounced Dallas two days ago intact. I’m not wild about keeping Matt Frattin and Alec Martinez benched, but I also understand the impulse to reward good performances. The defence, especially, was lights out on Saturday, making it approximately 0.01% likely that Martinez was going to get back into the lineup.
- Let’s just keep on rolling. Prediction: Kings win 4-1, and I’m not going to get on Kopitar’s case about scoring a goal if he has another game tonight like he did against Dallas.