Montreal Canadiens @ Los Angeles Kings (Staples Center)
Time: 7:30 PM PST
TV: Fox Sports West, RDS, SportsNet East
Enemy Reading: Habs Eyes on the Prize
Lineups:
Montreal Canadiens
Pacioretty–Desharnais–Gallagher
Galchenyuk–Plekanec–Weise
Eller–De La Rose–Smith-Pelly
Prust–Flynn–Mitchell
Markov–Subban
Gilbert–Petry
Beaulieu–Gonchar
Tokarski
(Price)
Injured: Emelin; Scratched: Weaver, Malhotra, Parenteau
Los Angeles Kings
Gaborik–Kopitar–Lewis
King–Carter–Toffoli
Brown–Stoll–Williams
Clifford–Shore–Nolan
Regehr–Doughty
McNabb–Sekera
Muzzin–Greene
Quick
(Jones)
Injured: Martinez, Pearson; Scratched: Andreoff, McBain; Suspended: Voynov
Notes:
- The Kings caught a rather large break, as with the Canadiens on a back-to-back it’s…
#Habs Dustin Tokarski in goal vs #LAKings, per @Hockey360
— Dave Stubbs (@Dave_Stubbs) March 6, 2015
Montreal is probably making the right call resting their Hart Trophy candidate after starting him last night, but it’s still a relief that LA doesn’t have to take on Carey Price.
- We actually still haven’t gotten a pure Price vs Quick matchup since the 2014 Olympic semifinal in Sochi, one in which the two goalies combined to stop 66 of 67 shots. Peter Budaj started against Quick on March 3, 2014, and Martin Jones started against Price on December 12, 2014. (Jones was pulled for Quick midway through that one, though.) The wait continues!
- Last year, the Kings put up six on Montreal in the teams’ first matchup, then eked out a 2-1 in in the rematch at home. This year, Montreal scored six on LA in the teams’ first matchup…
- At the trade deadline, Montreal was busier than LA, adding two familiar names to their lineup. One was the Ducks‘ Devante Smith-Pelly, exchanged for Jiri Sekac, who got an assist against LA last Friday. Smith-Pelly had some success against the Kings in last year’s playoffs but has been searching for that form all year long. Hopefully this doesn’t jump-start it.
- The other name? Jeff Petry, who aside from Andrej Sekera was probably the most-mentioned D target on this site leading up to the deadline. Montreal got a good deal on Petry, who (like Sekera) is manning the second pair for his new team.
- PREDICTION: No curved stick penalties, plenty of other stick penalties. Control yourselves, Jarret, Kyle, and Justin.