Los Angeles Kings v Edmonton Oilers (Staples Center)
Time: 6.00 PM
TV: Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: The Copper & Blue
Oilers (projected) lineup:
Yakupov-Nugent-Hopkins-Eberle
Perron-Arcobello-Hemsky
Lander-Gordon-Jones
Gazdic-Acton-Eager
Smid-Petry
Belov-J. Schultz
N. Schultz-Ference
Bachman
Injured: Devan Dubnyk, Sam Gagner, Taylor Hall, Ryan Hamilton, Jesse Joensuu, Steve MacIntyre, Tyler Pitlick, Ryan Smyth, you, me, everyone we’ve ever known; Scratched: Corey Potter, Denis Grebeshkov
Kings (projected) lineup:
King-Kopitar-Williams
Richards-Carter-Frattin
Brown-Stoll-Lewis
Clifford-Fraser-Nolan
Regehr-Doughty
Mitchell-Voynov
Muzzin-Greene
Quick
Game notes:
- Every forward who has ever suited up for the Edmonton Oilers is injured. I became injured just looking at their roster page. This is part of the, although not the complete, reason that the Oilers sit near the bottom of the League, with only three wins (two ROW) in 12 games played, for a sterling points percentage of .292. So things could be going better for the boys in copper & blue, all in all.
- The Oilers powerplay is limping along at an abysmal 12.2%, and the penalty kill is sinking with only a 72.7% success rate (plus the Oilers taking a crapload of penalties). If the Kings’ special teams can keep up the good work from Thursday and take it to the Oilers, that would certainly be helpful.
- If the Oilers are going to keep letting in four (four!) goals a night (seriously, FOUR), they should just put on some throwback jerseys and hope that people flipping channels don’t look too closely.
- The Kings’ bottom six has been a mildly warm pile of garbage to start the season. The Brown-Stoll-Lewis line managed to tread water against the Coyotes last game, and the Fraser-to-Nolan goal was nice, but for a team with much-vaunted depth, the performance of the forwards corps has remained remarkably top-heavy.
- As Robert reported earlier, a Manchester call-up which could help shore up the forward lines could be happening pretty soon. Let’s all resume the Alec Martinez prayer circle.
- Jonathan Quick was bad against Phoenix. Maybe he won’t be bad tonight. Nothing else to it.
- Prediction: Kings win 5-1, because you just know Nail Yakupov is going to bust out his first goal of the season against the Kings.