Los Angeles Kings v St Louis Blues (Scottrade Center)
Time: 5.00 PM
TV: Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: St Louis Game Time
Blues (projected) lineup:
Schwartz-Sobotka-Oshie
Paajarvi-Berglund-Tarasenko
Morrow-Roy-Stewart
Porter-Lapierre-Reaves
Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo
Jackman-Shattenkirk
Cole-Colaiacovo
Elliott
Injured: David Backes, Alexander Steen, Roman Polak, Jaroslav Halak, Jordan Leopold; Scratched: Adam Cracknell
Kings (projected) lineup:
King-Kopitar-Carter
Brown-Richards-Williams
Frattin-Stoll-Toffoli
Clifford-Lewis-Nolan
Muzzin-Doughty
Mitchell-Voynov
Regehr-Greene
Jones
Injured: Jonathan Quick; Scratched: Daniel Carcillo, Colin Fraser, Alec Martinez
Game notes:
- So this road trip has sucked, like, a lot.
- The Blues are a good team playing a good system that suits their roster, so even though the Kings have found success against them lately, sucking tonight is probably not a good strategy. (I know, I know, you come here for my hard-hitting analysis.)
- That being said, the Blues are missing key players at every position, and if the Kings can’t run over that bottom six, then they should all go sit in the corner and be covered in shame forever. Plus, Brian Elliott will probably be Brian Elliott-y tonight, which could be good for a free goal.
- Darryl “win and you’re in” Sutter has finally taken note of all the not-winning that the Kings have been doing and shuffled the lineup a bit more, including the resurrection of Matt Frattin, and the inexplicable/horrifying reunion of Robyn Regehr and Matt Greene. (This preview is so late because I had to go take a break to eat my feelings and then just throw up a lot everywhere. #analysis)
- I think the reactivation of Matt Frattin is a tiny baby step towards better usage of Tyler Toffoli, but it’s not enough. What Toffoli is good at is scoring goals, and playing him not beside somebody who is good at setting up goals is stupid.
- Seriously, Regehr-Greene. Barf. Why can’t Alec Martinez just apologize for running over Darryl Sutter’s dog already??
- Prediction: Kings win 3-1, because you can’t spell slumpbuster without St. Louis, kind of.