The LA Kings quest for the playoffs takes them to Carolina as they get set to take on the Hurricanes tonight.
LA is coming off a very hard fought loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 4-3 in a game they had a chance to come back in win.
The Lightning got themselves a 4-1 lead going into the third period with goals from Steven Stamkos, Alex Killorn, Cedric Paquette, and Nikita Kucherov. In the third, the Kings made a push to get themselves back in the game with two goals from Kyle Clifford and Christian Folin.
However, despite that final push, the Kings were not able to get that tying goal and it ended their three game winning streak.
To add insult to injury, midway through the first period, Anze Kopitar had a prime opportunity at an open net, which would have given the Kings an early 2-1 lead. However, Andrei Vasilevskiy made what might be the save of the year where somehow managed to catch the puck with his glove hand behind his back.
It’s very easy to look at that situation and think that if that puck went in, we could be talking about a much different game.
Also, the Kings will be without Dustin Brown for a game after he was suspended for one game after a kneeing incident near the end of the second period.
The Lightning’s Mikhail Sergachev was skating the puck out of his zone when Brown went to make contact with him in order to bump him off the puck. Sergachev saw that and tried to evade Brown, however Brown reacted to that by sticking his knee out to make contact.
As a result, Brown got a kneeing penalty and a game misconduct.
“No one knows what’s fair anymore,” said a frustrated Brown when talking about his suspension. “When I think of a knee, I think of a guy sticking his knee out to clip a guy.”
“My play, I thought, was lower-leg contact because he’s trying to get out of the way and I’m coming through on my original path. The league decided I stuck my leg out I guess.”
With the suspension, Tyler Toffoli moves up to the top line with Alex Iafallo and Kopitar, while Jonny Brodzinski gets promoted to the second line to play with Tanner Pearson and Adrian Kempe. Brodzinski has six points in 34 games with the Kings, however he has shown offensive talent with the AHL’s Ontario Reign where he scored 16 points in 13 games.
So now the Kings move onto Carolina where they face a Hurricanes team that has quietly pushed their way through a noisy Metropolitan Division and find themselves in the second Wild Card spot.
Unlike the Hurricanes of old, there are no real stars on this team that stands out above the rest. In 2002, when they made the Stanley Cup Final, they had a team that was led by current GM Ron Francis. In 2006, when they won the Cup, it was led by Rod Brind-Amour and a young Eric Staal.
The last time the Hurricanes made the playoffs was when they were swept Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009, again led by a young Staal.
This version of the ‘Canes have a scoring by committee. Leading the way for the team is Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, who have 43 and 42 points respectively. Since Dec. 23, Aho has 13 goals and 20 points in 18 games after being just average to start the season.
Meanwhile, Teravainen was a key acquisition from the Chicago Blackhawks and was expected to be a force on the offensive side of things. In his first year with the team he had 15 goals and 42 points in 81 games. However, this year he’s already equaled last year’s high of 42 points and is only two goals away from his career high.
There’s a lot of good veteran leadership on the ‘Canes as well starting with “Mr. Game 7” Justin Williams. The familiar face for Kings fans has 10 goals and 34 points in 56 games this season. Two other players of note are Jeff Skinner and Jordan Staal, both with 33 points on the year.
In net, the season has been split down the middle between Cam Ward and Scott Darling. Darling was a draft day acquisition from the Chicago Blackhawks when they Hawks couldn’t afford to keep him as a backup anymore. Unfortunately for Carolina, he hasn’t been the solid number one goalie as they hoped with his 2.99 GAA and .894 save percentage.
Ward is a legendary goalie for the Hurricanes as he was the one who backstopped them to a Stanley Cup and won the Conn Smythe trophy back in 2006. However, father time catches up with everyone and he hasn’t been the strong, big game goalie that he was earlier in his career.
This season Ward has a 16-7-3 record with a 2.59 GAA and .913 save percentage in 28 games. This is ok for a starting goalie but it isn’t be best. In his last six starts, Ward is 4-1-1 with a 2.33 GAA and .921 save percentage.
Though nothing is confirmed, it likely that it will be a Ward versus Jonathan Quick matchup tomorrow.
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