Kings-Blues Game 1 Preview

Los Angeles Kings v St Louis Blues (Scottrade Center)

Time: 5:00 PM

TV: CBC, CNBC

Enemy reading: St Louis Game Time

Series preview: #fancystats

Blues (projected) lineup:

Schwartz-Backes-Steen
Perron-Berglund-Oshie
McDonald-Sobotka-Stewart
Cracknell-Porter-Reaves

Pietrangelo-Bouwmeester
Leopold-Shattenkirk
Jackman-Russell?

Elliott

Injured: Langenbrunner; Scratched: Grachev, Jaskin, Murray, Nichol, Tarasenko, Chorney, Cole, Hakanpaa, Polak, Woywitka

Kings (projected) lineup:

Clifford-Kopitar-Carter
Brown-Richards-Williams
King-Stoll-Lewis
Penner-Richardson-Nolan

Regehr-Doughty
Scuderi-Voynov
Muzzin-Ellerby

Quick

Injured: Mitchell, Greene; Scratched: Fraser, Martinez, Toffoli

Game notes:

• I cannot stress enough how angry I am that Muzzin-Ellerby is an actual pairing for the playoffs.
• Is Alec Martinez secretly dead? Like...is he actually deceased? Are we being Weekend at Bernie's-ed? There's no universe in which playing Keaton Ellerby instead makes this a stronger team.
• Then again, the Blues have scratched Vladimir Tarasenko, one of their best offensive players, because...?
• A cursory examination of twitter has led me to realise that Blues fans are still all wound up about Notorious Thug Dwight King murdering Innocent Angel Alex Pietrangelo and that doesn't really mean anything for the game tonight, but it makes me laugh and I wanted to share.
• If you want actual hockey analysis, you should probably read Robert's excellent series preview, which I linked to above.
• If you want to read every single other series preview ever, LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen has got you covered.
• Me, this is all I have for you:

• The playoffs are pretty great, huh? Welcome back to the most wonderful time of the year. Prediction: Kings win, always. Go Kings Go.