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Game 48: Kings @ Canucks- Losing Streak Ends as Kings Continue to Push |
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After the Los Angeles Kings were able to snap their six game losing streak on Sunday, they now head to Western Canada to try and get back in the playoff picture.
The Kings beat the New York Rangers 4-2 on Sunday, thanks to three power play goals from Jake Muzzin, Michael Amadio, and Tanner Pearson. The penalty kill has been the strength of the Kings all season, not allowing a goal 86.7% of the time placing them first in the NHL. Conversely though, going into Sunday’s game the Kings ranked 22nd overall converting on their power play chances 16.8% of the time.
Sunday’s three for three performance on the power play moved them to 20th in the NHL raising their converting percentage by almost two full percentage points. If the Kings plan to return to where they were at the start of the season, they will need to continue to focus on the power play.
“Sometimes [on the power play] you don’t score and the challenge is to stay with it,” explained John Stevens this morning. “The problem on the power play, if you only fail 80% of the time, you’re in the top 10 in the league and that’s a hard thing to accept.”
“The power play hasn’t been a big source of production for us, but it made a big difference [on Sunday]”.
However, as the Kings go on this Western Canadian road trip, one of the challenges mentally will be not to look past tonight’s game against the Vancouver Canucks. The Kings begin a back-to-back with the Canucks and the Calgary Flames, and it is only natural for them to circle the Flames on the calendar as the team they’re chasing in the standings.
This classifies tonight’s game as a trap game since Vancouver has been out of the playoff picture for most of the season. The Canucks are coming off a tough 1-0 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday and are starting a five game homestand with the Kings.
They have one of the best of this year’s rookie class in Brock Boeser, who has 22 goals and 41 points in 44 games. On the back of their younger players like Boeser and Bo Horvat, and the support of veterans like the Sedin Twins and Thomas Vanek, the Canucks are a team in transition. You generally don’t know what you’re going to get from them on any given night.
Jacob Markstrom is scheduled get the start for Vancouver against the Kings. Markstrom has received the majority of the starts for the Canucks though he has shared time with Anders Nilsson. The 27-year-old goalie has a 12-14-5 record with a 2.76 GAA and .908 save percentage.
It appears as though Jonathan Quick will get the start once again for the Kings as he was the first one off the ice at the morning skate. John Stevens has started to rely on his star goalie by starting him four of the last five games, including a back-to-back last week with Pittsburgh Penguins and the Anaheim Ducks.
That trend doesn’t look like it will be changing any time soon because it would be hard to believe the Kings don’t start their best goalie against the team that is one point ahead of them in the standings in the Flames. With that in mind, after tomorrow’s game in Calgary the Kings don’t play for five days when travel to Dallas to take on the Stars. This should give Quick plenty of rest to continue the Kings playoff push.
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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