Edmonton Oilers @ Los Angeles Kings
Time: 7:30 Pacific
TV: Fox Sports West, SN360
Enemy Reading: Copper & Blue
Los Angeles Kings
Lucic – Kopitar – Brown
King – Carter – Toffoli
Pearson – Lecavalier – Lewis
Clifford – Shore – Andreoff
Muzzin – Doughty
Martinez – Schenn
McNabb – McBain
Quick
(Enroth)
Edmonton Oilers
Honestly, who cares? They have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. They still have Nail Yakupov, though that sounds like it might not last much longer. They have Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but who knows if that will be true in a week. They have Teddy Purcell still, and we wrote about the possibility of acquiring him yesterday. Who else is on the Oilers? Is Ben Scrivens there? Jeff Petry? Tom Gilbert? No? They’re all Canadiens now, I guess. Wonder why the Canadiens are terrible.
Anyway, the Kings are basically playing against the Edmonton Trading Block tonight, so lines seem somewhat irrelevant. Also, more importantly, I couldn’t find their lines while I was writing this.
Game Notes
- The Oilers have Andrej Sekera, still. I think. Anyway, I was sad when the Kings were unable to re-sign him, but he hasn’t worked out very well for Edmonton. He has a negative Corsi Relative, and that’s compared to a disastrous Oilers roster.
- How disastrous are the Oilers? Head coach Todd McLellan told us about it here. Yikes. The unnamed target of this appeared to be Justin Schultz. In retrospect, I think Kings fans would be more justified than Ducks fans in being mad that Schultz didn’t go to Anaheim.
- Connor McDavid is healthy again and doing all sorts of wild stuff. He’s played 11 games since returning from his broken collarbone, and he has points in 9 of those. Along those lines, he has multiple points in 3 of those games. In total, he has 16 points since returning to the lineup. He has 28 points in his first 24 games as a professional hockey player. On the worst team in hockey. Incredible.
- Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl are probably the only other bright spots the Oilers have had this year. While Hall has maintained a high level of play all season, Draisaitl has cooled off dramatically over the past two months. This is unsurprising, as Oilers all remember to be terrible eventually.
- It is unconfirmed, but it seems likely that Cam Talbot will start tonight. It doesn’t much matter, though, because the Oilers are bad.
- The Oilers might play with a bit of extra pluckiness, coming off a 6-game homestand during which they lost the last 5 games. On the other hand, they probably won’t.
- Kings! Staples Center! So exciting. The Kings are coming off of a tense 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames. They’re looking to keep things going in the right direction after a roughish start to 2016. They’ve now won two games in a row.
- No real changes expected tonight. Jordan Nolan is battling a minor injury while Kevin Gravel and Michael Mersch both appear to be odd men out.
- Jonathan Quick’s Vezina candidacy got a shot in the arm last night when Braden Holtby allowed 3 goals on 18 shots before getting yanked. Holtby eventually took the loss. Quick’s Save Percentage is now just .002 points behind Holtby’s. Get hot, Jonathan!
- PREDICTION: Kings win 5-1. Connor McDavid looks at the rest of his team and cries.