Los Angeles Kings v St. Louis Blues (Scottrade Center)
Time: 5:00 PM
TV: Fox Sports West/Midwest, Sportsnet One
Enemy Reading: St. Louis Game Time
Kings projected lineup:
Brown-Kopitar-Carter
King-Richards-Pearson
Gaborik-Stoll-Williams
Clifford-Lewis-Toffoli
Doughty-Muzzin
Regehr-Martinez
McNabb-Greene
Quick
(Jones)
(Jones)
Blues projected lineup:
Steen-Backes-Schwartz
Paajarvi-Lehtera-Tarasenko
Berglund-Stastny-Ott
Porter-Lapierre-Reaves
Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo
Butler-Shattenkirk
Jackman-Lindbohm
Allen
(Brodeur)
Scratches: Joakim Lindstrom, T.J. Oshie (family reasons), Ian Cole; Injured: Carl Gunnarsson (concussion/hip), Brian Elliott (knee)
Game notes:
- Come for the hockey, stay for the official unveiling of the Kings’ Neapolitan jerseys at 5:30 PM!
- Between this game, Thursday’s rematch, and Saturday’s contest against the Arizona Coyotes, expect a lot of references to 2012 this week. Also, bitterness. Lots of bitterness.
- I quietly freaked out about this whole Tyler Toffoli on the fourth line thing, which was foreshadowed during the second half of the Toronto game, earlier today. It’s not a bad fourth line when you think about it, but it’s not going to help Toffoli break his current goalscoring skid either. For the record: The line was OK on Sunday, though they played largely low-event hockey. Their high point was being on the ice leading up to Justin Williams‘ goal, and the low point was Trevor Lewis taking a penalty which led directly to the game-tying goal.
- On yesterday’s podcast, Tim of St. Louis Game Time hypothesized that it might be a good idea to give Martin Brodeur a start on home ice. Instead, Jake Allen gets the start in net over Brodeur. This could mean we’ll see Brodeur on Thursday, which is great news for Kings fans who haven’t gotten to unleash “MAAAAAARTYYYYYY” chants since June 2012. As for Allen, he’s won five of his last six starts, though only two of those were good goaltending performances.
- T.J. Oshie is the St. Louis Sports Personality of the Year! His name has also popped up in trade rumors, though I doubt that he’d really be on the block. [EDIT: Oshie is a late scratch due to “family reasons”; he’ll be replaced by Magnus Paajarvi. Here’s hoping everything is OK.]
- The Drew Doughty vs. Alex Pietrangelo debate rages on! They’re carrying identical scoring totals (three goals, seventeen points) on the season. Doughty has the edge in ice time (3:14 more per game) and possession (56% Corsi For vs 49%), while Pietrangelo has the edge in discipline (just 4 PIM on the season) and wins (THE ONLY STAT THAT MATTERS!).
- The Blues site’s game preview notes that St. Louis is 1-1-1 against Los Angeles in their previous three matchups. The Kings’ notes that Los Angeles is 9-3-0 against St. Louis in their previous 12. It’s all in the delivery.
- Prediction: Toffoli scores twice, LA wins 4-1, and Darryl Sutter laughs at your foolishness.