Los Angeles Kings v Philadelphia Flyers (Staples Center)
Time: 1:00 PM
TV: Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: Broad Street Hockey
Flyers (projected) lineup:
Hartnell-Giroux-Voracek
Lecavalier-Schenn-Simmonds
Read-Couturier-Downie
Hall-Raffl-Rinaldo
Meszaros-Coburn
Streit-Grossmann
Gustafsson-Schenn
Mason
Injured: Kimmo Timonen; Scratched: Hal Gill, Jay Rosehill.
Kings (projected) lineup:
Toffoli-Kopitar-Carter
Brown-Richards-Williams
King-Stoll-Lewis
Clifford-Fraser-Nolan
Muzzin-Doughty
Regehr-Voynov
Mitchell-Greene
Quick
Injured: Alec Martinez; Scratched: Matt Frattin, Jeff Schultz.
Notes:
- Subplots! Subplots everywhere! So we can avoid talking about the Kings’ lack of scoring, which is nice.
- Congratulations to Robyn Regehr on his 1000th NHL game. He’s not always a favorite around these parts, but that’s pretty impressive.
- Jeff Carter finally gets to face his former team for the first time since departing the Flyers in the summer of 2011. Mike Richards didn’t have to wait anywhere near as long for his first matchup; he got the game-winning assist in overtime when the Kings visited Philly on October 15, 2011.
- Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds, who were the players in the package Philadelphia received for Richards, are now linemates. They have 14 goals and 17 goals, respectively; Simmonds is tied for 4th in the NHL with nine power play goals, so he has found a productive role in the lineup.
- Remember when everyone thought Matt Read was coming to LA? That was fun. Dean Lombardi opted for Matt Frattin to provide the forward depth; Frattin is a healthy scratch tonight. Meanwhile, Read has 14 goals of his own in Philadelphia. Obviously, acquiring Read would have been slightly more expensive and considerably more costly, but it would’ve been good to have his scoring.
- As you can probably tell, the Flyers have a pretty balanced attack, with six players that have between 14 and 17 goals. Unfortunately, they’re struggling to prevent goals. Steve Mason shut out the Red Wings, but bookended that game with rough outings in Boston and Anaheim.
- Meanwhile, Ray Emery has been bad at everything other than punching Braden Holtby.
- The obvious storyline on the Kings’ end: the Los Angeles non-Kopitars have been shutout for five straight games. I wholeheartedly believe that will end today. If anyone can do it, Jeff Carter against the Flyers can.
- I must have been saving the best for last, because I don’t know how I waited this long to mention that Tyler Toffoli is on the first line. But TYLER TOFFOLI IS ON THE FIRST LINE.
- Prediction: Kings 5, Flyers 3. Toffoli gets all five, blindfolds himself before scoring the fifth between his legs, and continues upstaging Tomas Hertl by jumping into his pool.
