Los Angeles Kings v Tampa Bay Lightning (Staples Center)
Time: 7.30 PM
TV: Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: Raw Charge
Lightning (projected) lineup:
Connolly-Killorn-St. Louis
Brown-Filppula-Purcell
Malone-Thompson-Crombeen
Palat-Johnson-Panik
Gudas-Carle
Salo-Hedman
Brewer-Korobov
Bishop
Injured: Steven Stamkos, Keith Aulie, Tom Pyatt, Mark Barberio, Brian Lee; Scratched: Pierre-Cedric Labrie, Andrej Sustr, Matthias Ohlund
Kings (projected) lineup:
Brown-Kopitar-Williams
King-Richards-Toffoli
Carcillo-Stoll-Frattin
Pearson-Vey-Lewis
Muzzin-Doughty
Regehr-Voynov
Mitchell-Martinez
Scrivens
Injured: Jeff Carter, Matt Greene, Kyle Clifford, Jonathan Quick; Scratched: Jordan Nolan, Colin Fraser
Game notes:
- This is pretty superficial, sorry, because work is currently overwhelming.
- I know I said this last time (right before they spanked the Kings), but I still have absolutely no idea who any of these guys are. Palat Panik sounds like a culturally appropriative terrible indie rock band made up of comfortably middle-class wasp-y kids who met at Oberlin.
- A dude famous for having a huge beard is on their top defensive pairing. A dude famous for having one testicle is on their second defensive pairing.
- ERIC BREWER.
- I can’t deal with any of this.
- Obviously, the Lightning are less potent offensively without top talent Steven Stamkos, but Tampa’s 2-1 in the three games since he got injured, and they continue to sit atop the Eastern Conference. They are, however, coming off a rough 6-3 loss in their Western Conference road trip opener against Phoenix on Saturday night.
- The key to victory tonight will likely be, as it is on most night, how well the Kings can deal with the opposing goaltender. They have the firepower and the defensive guns to hang with almost any other team in the league, but they couldn’t solve Ben Bishop last time, and if they can’t solve him this time, they’ll be toast again.
- I know things aren’t exactly clear on whether Jordan Nolan is banged up or not, but if he’s healthy and ready to play, and he’s being sat in favour of Dan Carcillo, I wish Darryl Sutter would reconsider. I think Nolan’s a)out-performed Carcillo of late, b)got a lot more room to grow, and c)could be part of a solid bottom-six future for the Kings if he ever escapes from the pressbox again.
- ~Fun With Numbers~:
- Prediction: Kings win 4-2, Pearson & Vey get their acts together, and the Jarret Stoll redemption tour continues with a goal tonight.
| Team | GP | Points | ROW | Goal Diff | PP% | PK% | S/G | SA/G | CF% (5v5SC) | FF% (5v5SC) | PDO |
| Kings | 20 | 29 (7th, W) | 10 | +12 (8th) | 20.8 (9th) | 82.9 (14th) | 32.1 (6th) | 25.9 (5th) | 57.2% (2nd) | 56.3% (4th) | 984 (20th) |
| Lightning | 19 | 28 (1st, E) | 11 | +14 (6th) | 19.2 (16th) | 84.5 (7th) | 27.8 (26th) | 28.5 (10th) | 50.8% (11th) | 50.4% (14th) | 102 (10th) |