How to Watch
Game Time: 1 p.m. Pacific Time
TV: Fox Sports West, Fox Sports Arizona, ESPN+ (Go here for more information on subscribing)
Radio: iHeart Radio
The Opposition: Five For Howling
What to Watch
- The Kings have done very well at home, where they only have a few losses so far this season. Sometimes, home is where the heart is at or something, right?
- We just saw these guys a week ago, so I’m going to cheat and tell you to look at Julius’ preview. Not much has changed in the six days since Los Angeles was shutout in Arizona.
- Speaking of shutouts, that was the third time this season the Kings have been shutout. They have yet to register one of their own, despite Jonathan Quick ’s and Jack Campbell ’s best efforts.
- Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper are forming a formidable duo in which they have a combined save percentage of 0.928 in 23 games played. Campbell and Quick, on the other hand, have a near, if not completely, league-worst combined save percentage of .8845. It’s not entirely their fault, but they’re also not really stealing games, either unlike Raanta. Yes, I am salty. Get off my back.
- That game, though, was lost in the first period. It was a bad 20, a mediocre 20, then a good 20, and well, 20 minutes isn’t going to get you many wins.
- The Kings are attempting a ridiculous amount of shots. They’re averaging almost 61 attempts per 60 minutes, which puts them fourth behind the Nashville Predators, Montreal Canadiens, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. On the flip side of that, they’re giving up a bit of an alarming amount of attempts, averaging about 56 per 60 minutes. That’s only ninth worst, so it’s not like the sky is falling, but it’s hard to win when you give up so many attempts. There is a caveat here, though.
- Of shots that DO make it to the net, the Kings are second best at 5v5, right behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, averaging about 33 shots on goal per game and only giving up 28 shots on goal per 60. The thing is, though, it takes a lot of energy to block shots and when you’re defending so often in your own zone, that’s how mistakes tend to happen.
- So what gives? Their laughably low shooting percentage of 7.13%. The Colorado Avalanche, despite all their recent troubles, convert nearly 10% of their shots into goals. Some of it is a little skewed by how many shots and how many games played, etc. But the point is: the Kings are simply not converting.
- But look on the bright side: they’re still doing a little bit better than the Calgary Flames, who have a league worst 5v5 shooting percentage of 5.97%. So at least there’s that.
- The Kings’ special teams got a lot of work in practice and against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. It was still a sludge as LA struggled to find the back of the net and only did so once because Mike Smith is a hilariously bad goaltender.
- Burying the lede here, if you’re headed to the Stapler, plan to leave early. There are apparently events and high fallutin’ to-dos happening in downtown Los Angeles./
Lineups
Neither team held a morning skate because it is a manatee game so here’s the projection based on last week’s game (but swapping out Quick for Campbell).
Los Angeles Kings
Iafallo — Kopitar — Brown
Carter — Amadio — Toffoli
Kempe — Lizotte — Wagner
Luff — Prokhorkin — Clifford
Martinez — Doughty
Hutton — Walker
Ryan — Roy
Quick
Arizona Coyotes
Dvorak — Schmaltz — Garland
Keller — Stepan — Hinostroza
Crouse — Soderberg — Kessel
Grabner — Richardson — Fischer
Ekkman-Larsson — Demers
Chychrun — Goligoski
Ness — Oesterle
Raanta