Los Angeles Kings v Vancouver Canucks (BC Place)
Time: 7:00 PM PST
TV: Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: Nucks Misconduct
Lineups:
Los Angeles Kings
Gaborik-Kopitar-Williams
Brown-Stoll-Lewis
Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
Clifford-Richards-King
Muzzin-Doughty
Schultz-Martinez
McBain-Greene
Quick
(Jones)
Scratched: McNabb, Andreoff, Nolan; Injured: Regehr; Suspended: Voynov
Vancouver Canucks
D. Sedin-H. Sedin-Vrbata
Higgins-Bonino-Hansen
Matthias-Richardson-Vey
Burrows-Horvat-Dorsett
Edler-Tanev
Stanton-Bieksa
Sbisa-Weber
Miller
(Lack)
Scratched: Kassian, Sanguinetti, Sestito; Injured: Hamhuis
Notes:
- Andy Andreoff, we hardly knew ye.
- I was fortunate enough to catch the Anaheim-Vancouver game at Honda Center last week. The Ducks, as expected, came back in the third period and won by a goal (scored by Cam Fowler in overtime), but they totally deserved it after dominating the game’s second half. Vancouver did not look good at ALL.
- Of course, they then followed it up with a 3-1 win over the Sharks, despite losing the shot battle again.
- Vancouver, like LA, only has four players with more than 20 points on the season. Their top ten scorers are all forwards, and three LA defensemen (Doughty, Muzzin, and Martinez) have more points than any d-man on Vancouver. So if you’re looking to focus your defense on anyone, it’s an obvious choice: worry about Radim Vrbata and the Sedin twins.
- Jon Rosen expressed some doubt about whether the defense would indeed look like it did in practice. If it does, though? Alec Martinez gets to play with Jeff Schultz. Brayden McNabb is sitting again, because he’s injured. Or maybe it’s just because ¯_(ツ)_/¯
- Tom Sestito is scratched, so he can’t try to beat his record of getting ejected after one second of ice time.
- LA’s road record is terrible, but it doesn’t really reflect how they’ve performed in said road games. More on that tomorrow.
- PREDICTION: Kings 2, Canucks 1. Just start off 2015 with a win, yeah?/