Yes that's right, the dreaded afternoon match on a Saturday. A somewhat historically difficult game time for the Kings it seems.
Not only does the game time seem to always cause problems for the Kings, they are playing a young and inspired Colorado Avalanche team. Although the Avs have been on the backslide as of late going 5-4-1 in their last 10, they handed the Kings one of only six home loses this season back on November 10th 1-0 in overtime.
The last time the two teams met the Kings only mustered 19 shots towards Semyon Varlamov, while allowing 33 on Ben Scrivens. McGinn had the lone tally on a rather flukey overtime goal.
Here were the highlights from that game:
The Avs are being led by Matt Duchene, who has been absolutely on fire lately. In his last five games, Duchene has a massive ten points (4g 6a). He and linemates Ryan O'Reilley and Nathan MacKinnon have been leading the charge as Colorado looks to pick up their third win in their last four games. With one of the better road records in hockey at 11-5-0, the Avs are meeting up with a Kings team that has had mixed results at home lately.
Before ripping off four straight to the likes of St. Louis, NYI, San Jose and Edmonton on home ice, the Kings dropped three to Colorado, Calgary, and New Jersey. However, the Kings look on form currently behind goaltender Martin Jones and the goalscoring machine that has been Dwight King.
Jones, with a victory today to go 8-0, can tie the record for most consecutive wins to start a career. The record was set by Bob Froese in 1982-83 with the Philidelphia Flyers. He also held a 12-0-1 regulation undefeated record to start his career as well. The Avs faced Jones in preseason at the Pepsi Center in Denver where Jones was pulled after giving up three goals on 11 shots. However, this isn't the same Martin Jones or Kings team that the Avs faced back in early September.
Meanwhile, Dwight King has come to life on the scoring side with three goals and six points in his last four, including this dandy assist on Thursday night:
Drew Doughty is also playing perhaps his best stretch of hockey for the team right now, and after a long slump for Jeff Carter he now has eight points in his last five games (3g 5a).
Should be a good one at Staples Center, and hopefully the Kings can be early birds today and put away their ninth game in their last ten.
Do it for Jones! Let's just hope that NHL.com comes up with a better headline for his victory if there is one. Still laid the foundation for much doge references though which I appreciate.
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Not surprisingly, there was no supplemental discipline for Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown for his unfortunate knee to knee collision with young Tomas Hertl on Thursday. First off, I wish for a quick recovery to Hertl who is one of the games brightest young stars. It was an unfortunate collision that no doubt ruffled the feathers of many people given who was on the receiving end of the blow, and who walked away unscathed.
No question Brown has had a penchant for blue line knee to knee collisions in his career. First and most notably with Michal Rozsival of Phoenix just seconds before the Kings sent the Yotes crashing out of the Western Conference Finals, and the second coming last season against young Jaden Schwartz of St. Louis.
This one with Hertl was a complete accident it looked like. With Brown's "reputation" there were certainly a number of people calling for his head (cough* cough* Phoenix, Anaheim fans) but take a look for yourself and see.
Brown was assessed a match penalty at tossed from the game, which in hindsight looked like the wrong call.
But hey, because Brown is who he is there are going to be a number of fans thinking it was a premeditated and malicious. Mind you, Brown has been suspended just once in his career for an elbow to Jason Pominville (which was very much deserved in my opinion.) He remains one of the cleanest hitters in the game despite the agitation he causes to opposing teams and fans.
I think we all remember this one... 1:20 in for those who want to skip ahead.
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Also, in regards to suspensions, the NHL player safety division put out in my opinion one of
THE BEST explanations earlier this week when it came to the decisions to not suspend Tom Wilson for his hit on Brayden Schenn.
Do yourself a favor and check it out here.
I really wish the league had this much transparency in ALL of its decisions when it comes to discipline. Not only is it my contention that they got the call right, they made everyone see the logic behind their decision...which isn't always apparent. Kudos to you Shanny and Co.
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