Los Angeles Kings v Tampa Bay Lightning (Tampa Bay Times Forum)
Time: 4.30 PM
TV: Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: Raw Charge
Lightning (projected) lineup:
Malone-Stamkos-St. Louis
Killorn-Filppula-Panik
Palat-Johnson-Purcell
Labrie-Thompson-Crombeen
Gudas-Carle
Salo-Hedman
Brewer-Sustr
Bishop
Injured: Tom Pyatt; Scratched: Keith Aulie, Mark Barberio, Brian Lee, Mattias Ohlund
Kings (projected) lineup:
Brown-Kopitar-Williams
King-Richards-Carter
Clifford-Lewis-Frattin
Carcillo-Stoll-Nolan
Regehr-Doughty
Mitchell-Voynov
Martinez-Greene
Quick
Game notes:
- If you can tell me the first names of two-thirds of the Lightning’s forwards, I will give you a prize.
- If you can tell me the full name of the Lightning’s head coach, I will give you an extra-nice prize.
- If you can tell me that you knew that Eric Brewer still played in the NHL – shut the hell up, you liar.
- How bad is Keith Aulie that he’s getting scratched in this lineup? Carter Ashton must feel terrible.
- The Lightning have played five games so far, coming into tonight with a 3-2 record. Highlights of those five games including beating the Blackhawks in a shootout (despite registering ZERO shots in the first period) and thumping the woeful Panthers 7-2 (featuring a Stamkos hat trick).
- It hasn’t been all the Stamkos & St. Louis show in Tampa, as rookie Alex Killorn and UFA acquisition Valtteri Filppula have also chipped in for some solid production. While the defence has been a hot mess, Ben Bishop has been great, winning all three of his starts and basically stealing that game against the Blackhawks.
- Bishop sustained a minor lower body injury in the game against the Panthers. He finished that game, took a game off, and will start against the Kings tonight.
- The Kings also thumped the Panthers, thoroughly out-working them in Sunday’s game. As noted in Nick’s excellent game grades post, the team was mostly solid top-to-bottom, with a few notable exceptions.
- Let’s focus instead on the third line – specifically, that it has been terrible in every iteration. Losing Jarret Stoll, gaining Matt Frattin, and moving Trevor Lewis back to his natural position at centre doesn’t seem to have done the trick. On Sunday, they stuck out as being noticeably less than great in what was by far the Kings’ strongest effort of the season thus far. I’d be interested to see what some of the Monarchs could do in those lineup spots, but it’s still early days.
- In unsurprising but a little scary news, Elliotte Friedman’s 30 Thoughts noted that a few teams have inquired about Alec Martinez’s availability. Clearly the price hasn’t yet been right, but as the season continues and defencemen go down blocking shots & whatever, the Kings’ glut of bottom pairing/AHL-NHL tweener defencemen may certainly come back into focus.
- Prediction: Kings win 5-4, Anze Kopitar scores a goal??