Los Angeles Kings v Edmonton Oilers (Staples Center)
Time: 1.00 PM
TV: NHL Network, Fox Sports West
Enemy reading: Copper and Blue
Oilers (projected) lineup:
Hall-Nugent-Hopkins-Eberle
Paajarvi-Gagner-Hemsky
Jones-Horcoff-Yakupov
Brown-Smyth-Petrell
Smid-Petry
N Schultz-J Schultz
Whitney-Potter
Dubnyk
Injured: Sutton (knee), Belanger (groin)
Kings (projected) lineup:
Brown-Kopitar-Williams
Clifford-Richards-Carter
King-Lewis-Stoll
Richardson-Fraser-Nolan
Muzzin-Doughty
Scuderi-Voynov
Regehr-Ellerby
Quick
Injured: Greene (back), Mitchell (knee), Penner (upper body)
Game notes:
- After a nice five-game win streak, the Oilers got dumped 4-0 by the Canucks on Thursday. Good thing they acquired Jerred Smithson, who might be one of the worst players in the NHL. Also, “Jerred” is a stupid name.
- With Dustin Penner’s injury, Jordan Nolan is back in the lineup, and Brad Richardson and Dwight King spent last game flipping between the third and fourth lines. I don’t know why Tyler Toffoli isn’t playing? Free Tyler Toffoli??
- Fun with numbers:
Team GP Points ROW Goal
DifferentialHome/Away
RecordPP% PK% Kings (5th, West) 37 45 20 +16 13-4-1 18.8 (12th) 81.8 (13th) Oilers (9th, West) 37 39 14 -3 8-9-3 23.1 (3rd) 84.3 (8th) - As you can see, the Oilers are pretty good on special teams. The Kings have been noticeably more disciplined about taking dumb penalties lately – staying that way this afternoon will be even more important than usual.
- Robyn Regehr looked (to these non-scoring-chance-counting eyes) not bad in his Kings debut against the Wild. I still didn’t love the amount of time he spent in a pairing with Drew Doughty, and I’m a bit concerned about the stability of the defensive pairings, but who knows what will happen tonight.
- Jonathan Bernier was great against Minnesota. The ongoing mystery of whether good Jonathan Quick or terrible Jonathan Quick will show up for the game today continues.
- Please, please, please don’t get to a shootout.
- Go Kings Go.