Los Angeles Kings @ Boston Bruins
Time: 4:00 Pacific
TV: Fox Sports West, NESN
Enemy Reading: Stanley Cup of Chowder
Los Angeles Kings
Lucic-Kopitar-Brown
King-Carter-Toffoli
Gaborik-Lecavalier-Lewis
Clifford-Andreoff-Nolan
McNabb-Doughty
Muzzin-Martinez
Ehrhoff-Schenn
Quick
(Enroth)
Scratched: Andreoff, Pearson, McBain
Boston Bruins
Eriksson-Krejci-Pastrnak
Marchand-Connolly-Randell
Beleskey-Spooner-Hayes
Rinaldo-Talbot-Ferraro
Chara-Trotman
Morrow-Seidenberg
Krug-Miller
Rask
(Gustavsson)
Injured: Kelly, McQuaid Scratched: Miller
Stats & Such
(Fancy stats courtesy War on Ice)
| Team | Kings | Bruins |
| Record | 31-17-3 | 28-18-6 |
| Points | 65 | 62 |
| Division Rank | 1st | 3rd |
| Streak | Lost 1 | Won 2 |
| Goals For/Game | 2.69 | 2.98 |
| Goals Against/Game | 2.33 | 2.65 |
| ES Goal % | 50.3 | 51.5 |
| ES Shot % | 54.2 | 51.5 |
| ES PDO | 99.0 | 100.0 |
| ES Corsi % | 56.1 | 49.5 |
| ES Fenwick % | 55.7 | 50.3 |
| ES Scoring Chance % | 55.1 | 48.9 |
| ES High-Danger SC % | 53.6 | 47.9 |
| Power Play % (Rank) | 21.9 (4th) | 24.1 (2nd) |
| Penalty Kill % (Rank) | 82.7 (9th) | 84.7 (4th) |
| Starting Goalie (today) | Quick | Rask |
| Goalie Record | 27-14-2 | 19-15-5 |
| Save % | .917 | .918 |
| ES Save % | .924 | .924 |
Notes:
- Sorry for not getting this out until like less than 2 hours before game time. Blame Drew Doughty for being an asshole and making me not wanna write this today. Thanks as always for making it easy to cheer for you Drew!!
- So the Kings are starting a 7-game road trip tonight. They’ll play 5 games against Eastern Conference opposition (actually other than tonight it will be all from the Metro division, which still has that stupid name yes) and then wrap things up against St. Louis and Nashville. Hope you got to see the Kings at home when you had the chance, because they won’t be back at Staples until they host the Calgary Flames exactly two weeks from tonight. Enjoy missing all these games because you’re at work and in traffic, everybody!
- Things haven’t exactly been going great for our favorite hockey team of late, going 5-5-0 in their last 10 games. Luckily because of both their earlier good play and the general awfulness of their division the Kings are not really feeling the heat in the standings just yet; they still have a 7-point lead on the Sharks (8 points on the Ducks) for 1st place, and all three teams have played the same number of games. Still, if the Kings have a bad road trip here you’d think at least one of those two teams will be able to make up ground on them (probably the Ducks, to be honest), so it’s important for them to get off to a good start tonight.
- I don’t know if you’ve heard this but Milan Lucic used to play for the Bruins. Don’t worry, if you forget you’ll be reminded approximately fifteen thousand more times between now and the end of the game. This is his first game back in Boston since they traded him so expect a lot of crying in funny Boston accents over their beloved caveman.
- The line shuffler has kicked into gear again. I like the defensive pairings (the 2nd pairing doesn’t look awful again! Ehrhoff is back in the lineup finally!!) but those forward lines leave a little to be desired. Oh, and it doesn’t look like Tanner Pearson will play. He has just 1 point in his last 11 games and Darryl Sutter hasn’t been enamored with his game, so he looks to be taking a seat in the press box for at least one game.
- The Bruins are a mediocre even strength team getting propped up by outstanding special teams play, if you were wondering. Actually they really aren’t doing much better than the Kings on the power play by some metrics- for instance, they are generating 55.1 scoring chances per 60 minutes of power play time, which is good (7th in the league), but the Kings are actually doing slightly better at 56.5. Also, the team they trail by just 0.1% for the league power play lead, Washington, does 57.9 scoring chances per 60, and there’s two teams doing even better than that. Hockey is weird.
- PREDICTION: Kings win 3-2. Doughty scores the game-winner with just seconds left to play, as he ends up in front of the net and the puck collides with his penis before bouncing in. It looks incredibly painful. I feel a wave of euphoria wash over me.