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Game No. 1 Game Day Blog: Los Angeles Kings @ Minnesota Wild (UPDATED)

October 3, 2013, 11:45 AM ET [14 Comments]
Jason Lewis
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Records:

Los Angeles Kings (0-0-0)
@
Minnesota Wild (0-0-0)

Location: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul Minnesota

Time: 8PM Eastern, 5PM Pacific

Channels: NBCSN, TSN2

Local Radio: AM 1150

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Leading Scorers:

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Team Stats:

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Los Angeles Kings Preview:

- Well, here we are at the start of the 2013-14 season as the Kings open the year on a back to back with the Minnesota Wild and the Winnipeg Jets on the road. The Kings are coming off a second consecutive Western Conference Finals appearance and a preseason where they went 3-3-1 with a plus-2 goal differential. Their opponents for game one of the 2013-14, The Wild, gave them some trouble last year and took the season series 2-1.

- Up front the Kings look almost identical to the 2012-13 Kings outside of the addition of Daniel Carcillo who is likely to start on the fourth line, and Matt Frattin who will line up with Jeff Carter and Mike Richards.

- The the current status of Dustin Brown, who according to reports is healthy, is that he will start on the third line for tonight. This will make way for hot preseason forward Dwight King on the first line. King was arguably the team’s best forward in preseason and is looking to bounceback from a 2012-13 outing that had many wondering if he could lose his job to one of many young King rookies in the minors to start the year. A jump start to Dwight King’s year will be crucial in improving upon the King bottom line scoring which was among the worst in the league last season.

- Defensively the Kings are trying to re-establish the depth that was so key in their cup run in 2012-13, and a lot will depend on the play and health of Willie Mitchell. The Kings will be without rock solid Rob Scuderi for the first time in several years and Mitchell’s presence (as well as Matt Greene) will be crucial in calming a still very young group of puckmovers in LA.

- The King powerplay was a huge weapon in the preseason games, scoring seven goals in the five non split squad preseason games. Mike Richards and Justin Williams led the charge, each with two goals and an assist with the extra man.

- Anze Kopitar has apparently come into this season with more of a shooters mentality. Kopitar was quoted with the LA Times as saying "I’m not going to force it, but, yeah, if the shot’s there I’ll try to think shot first and then try and set up,". He was urged to do so by Darryl Sutter and long time King and president of hockey operations Luc Robitaille. Twice the Slovenian has scored over 30 goals, once in 2007-08 and the other time in 2009-10.

- After training camp battle between Martinez and Muzzin it would appear that Jake Muzzin is in line to start the first game of the season with Matt Greene on the 3rd pairing.

- Not much has changed in Los Angeles this offseason except for the idea of unfinished business in terms of getting back to a cup finals. The team felt like they came up a bit short last year, and getting off to the right foot tonight will be a good start.


Kings Lineup (Subject to change)

Dwight King - Anze Kopitar - Justin Williams
Matt Frattin - Mike Richards - Jeff Carter
Dustin Brown - Jarret Stoll - Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford - Colin Fraser - Jordan Nolan

Robyn Regehr - Drew Doughty
Willie Mitchell - Slava Voynov
Jake Muzzin - Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick
Ben Scrivens

Scratches: Daniel Carcillo, Alec Martinez, Keaton Ellerby


Players to Watch: Dwight King, Mike Richards, Matt Frattin, Dustin Brown



Minnesota Wild Preview:

-The Wild made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2007-08 but were bested by the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks. The Wild come back into 2013-14 with a newfound confidence and a team that looks pretty solid on paper.

-Home openers seem to be something the Wild excel at, as they have never lost a season home opener in their 12 year history (11-0-0-1* Tie, not SOL).

-Obviously with the Wild you have the rockstars like Parise, Suter, Heatley and Pominville, but they’ve added a considerable amount of depth and sandpaper from youth and free agency. Along with Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba is a defenseman the organization is very high on, but it looks like Dumba will be scratched in favor of the bigger and more experienced Clayton Stoner. Minnesota have impressive young forwards Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund and have also picked up disgruntled former first round choice of the New York Islanders Nino Niederreiter who is looking to start fresh with a new team. Veteren players Matt Cooke and Keith Ballard also enter the fray and look to balance out what could be a very youthful and inexperienced Wild team.

-Speaking of young players, coach Mike Yeo was incredibly impressed in training camp with forwards Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund. Granlund, a first round selection in 2010, has spent the majority of the last two seasons nursing injuries. He's a talented and creative forward with great on-ice vision and playmaking skills. He should be a great addition to the Wild roster if he can stay healthy.

-Last season saw the youg newcomer Jason Zucker enter the fray, but he was beat out by several of the young new players and was returned to the AHL for the start of this season.

-Even with a lot of new and shiny offensive weapons don’t look for Minnesota to ignite the score sheet too often. Third year coach Mike Yeo loves to play tough, grind it out hockey, with an emphasis on defense first. He’s got a lot of good personnel to do so, and Minnesota should be competing hard for a playoff spot this year if not challenging Chicago for the division title.

-It will be interesting to see if there is any sort of reaction from the Wild early on against Dustin Brown, whose hit on Jason Pominville late last year put the former Sabre out of commission for the postseason.

- looks like opening day is a little bit more special for Jason Pominville, as a contract extension has been wrapped up with management. A little extra motivation tonight?




- As mentioned before Matt Dumba will be scratched in favor of Clayton Stoner according to Mike Russo of the Star Tribune. The logic is that Stoner, 6'3" 225, will be better suited to play against the bigger forwards of the Kings rather than Dumba, who is 6'0 185lbs.

Wild Lineup (Subject to change)

Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Jason Pominville
Nino Niederreiter - Charlie Coyle - Danny Heatley
Matt Cooke - Kyle Brodziak - Mikael Granlund
Torrey Mitchell - Zenon Konopka - Justin Fontaine

Ryan Suter - Jonas Brodin
Marco Scandella - Jared Spurgeon
Keith Ballard - Clayton Stoner

Nicklas Backstrom
Josh Harding

Scratches: Matt Dumba, Nate Prosser

Players to watch: Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Matt Dumba

FIRST PERIOD SCORING

Wild Goal - 1:04 - Matt Cooke (deflection), Assists: K. Brodziak, M. Granlund

LA Kings Goal (PPG) - 7:40 - Drew Doughty (Slap shot), Assists: S. Voynov, A. Kopitar

Wild Goal (PPG) - 17:12 - Jonas Brodin (Slap shot) Assists: N. Neidereitter

SECOND PERIOD SCORING

None

THIRD PERIOD SCORING

LA Kings Goal - 13:14 - Jeff Carter (Wrist Shot), Assists: Matt Frattin, Mike Richards

OVERTIME SCORING

None

SHOOTOUT

MIN Zach Parise - SAVE QUICK
LAK Anze Kopitar - GOAL
MIN Mikko Koivu - SAVE QUICK
LAK Jeff Carter - GOAL

Kings win 3-2 SO


Analysis:

First off, wow. This game had some intensity in it. Not bad for a season opener. The Wild certainly came out of the gates playing like they were 11-0-1 in home openers. Just a minute in they got, in my opinion, an INCREDIBLY fortunate goal upheld off the skate of Matt Cooke. Even the NBC crew was in complete agreement that it was an obvious kicking motion. However the goal stood and immediately put the Kings on their heels. A handful of defensive miscues also kept the Kings hemmed in and away from the offensive zone for a good majority of the period. Drew Doughty leveled it with a blast on the powerplay but his PP marker was equaled by Jonas Brodin later in the period. Undisciplined play and some sketchy defending made for a nervy first period overall. Credit Minnesota they employed a very heavy forecheck and forced the Kings into a lot of turnovers and miscues.

The second period saw more of the same as the Kings continued to acquiesce against the relentless forecheck of the Wild. Minnesota did a good job of clogging the neutral zone and taking away any offensive build up the Kings tried to establish through the middle of the ice. The Dustin Brown third line experiment ended as quickly as it began, and after a period and a half Dwight King was back on the third line and Brown was up to the first. Jonathan Quick was the lone bright spot of the second coming up with absolutely highway robbery on Zach Parise preventing a 3-1 deficit.

Tough sledding in the neutral zone continued but the Kings started to come to life after a delay of game penalty by Charlie Coyle early in the third period sat Minnesota on their heels. Interesting to note that Willie Mitchell had the most ice-time of any player not named Ryan Suter after the second period. Darryl Sutter really putting the trust in Mitchell early. The Carter, Richards, Frattin line made their first connection of the year as Richards craftily made his way into the neutral zone, which was a rare occurrence throughout, and fed the middle of the ice. Carter eventually buried the equalizer. Several ridiculous scrambles in front of the net ensued before the period ended including a game saving wide open shot block by Trevor Lewis. If you had told me this game would be a low scoring overtime/shootout affair from the beginning I wouldn’t have been surprised.

Quick came through for the team with a very nice poke check save in the shootout and Jeff Carter and Anze Kopitar scored to put it out of reach. Overall I was impressed with the Minnesota Wild. They are young, aggressive, and a very disciplined team overall. The Kings though often find a way to win when they don’t look their best and that was the case again tonight. They need to tighten up defensively but overall they will probably be happy to hand Minnesota their first ever loss on a home opener.


Three Stars

Jonathan Quick
Ryan Suter
Drew Doughty


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