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The Los Angeles Kings are coming out of the Christmas break to play one of the bigger games of the season so far against their new division rivals, the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas currently leads the Pacific Division with 50 points and has two games in hand on Kings, who are two points behind.
LA has only gotten one glimpse of the expansion team during a 4-2 loss in Las Vegas on Nov. 19. Coming into the game the Golden Knights are 9-1-1 in December and remain one of the hottest and surprising teams in the NHL.
Both the Golden Knights and Kings have been a surprise to the hockey pundits based on their predictions prior to the season. The Kings have been getting more production from their core, which wasn’t the case last season, while the Golden Knights are and expansion team and by definition were expected to lose.
On top of being a team that has never played together before this season, Vegas has also had to go through five goaltenders early in the season due to injuries. For most teams, that is the most adversity a team usually gets in a season so with Marc-Andre Fleury back in action, we will get a good sense of who/what the Golden Knights actually are.
Five things to watch:
1. Rust or Rest?: Vegas is coming off a 4-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks but is on the back end of a back-to-back so there may be a sign of fatigue. However, after three days off, most teams can afford playing two games in a row. As for the Kings, like most teams they have bumps and bruises so the extra rest will do them some good.
Long breaks are always weird in the sense that it’s like a reset button for a team, good or bad. The Kings can hit the ground running like they did to start the season or they might need a game to get their legs back under them.
2. Goaltending Duel: A goaltending matchup between Jonathan Quick and Marc-Andre Fleury will be fun to watch. Both goalies have the capability of stealing a game and both goalies are seen as premier goalies in the NHL over their careers.
In the limited action that Fleury has played this season, he has a 6-1-1 record with a 1.97 GAA and .938 save percentage over eight games. Quick has a 17-11-1 record with a 2.23 GAA, which is good for second in the NHL of netminders who have played 15 games or more. His .929 save percentage ties him with Roberto Luongo for third in the NHL.
3. Vegas Attack Mode: The Golden Knights don’t really have a true checking line that most teams do. They are beating teams with speed and offense through three relatively well-balanced lines. How well the Kings as a team play defensively will likely decide the outcome of the game. Anze Kopitar is an ever present Selke contender so the two first lines will likely match up. It’s a matter of how well Kempe and Shore’s lines can keep up.
4. Special Teams Matchups: It’s interesting when looking at these two teams in regards to their special teams as one’s strength is the other’s weakness. Vegas is 15th in the NHL when it comes to converting on the power play at 19.5%. To go up against it, the Kings are the league’s best penalty kill units, stopping power plays 86.5%.
Conversely, the Kings have the fourth worst power play, converting at 15.4% but the Golden Knights are the NHL’s ninth worst penalty killing unit at 79.3%.
So either one of these teams is going to have to buck the trend and improve on one of their weaknesses or 5 on 5 play is going to be the main decider of this game.
5. Dustin Brown (again) Tonight is the night that the Kings will honor Brown before the game on his 1000th career game. If you remember correctly Brown scored the overtime winning goal during his 1000th game against the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 21. As it was for Marian Gaborik’s ceremony, emotions will be running high to start the game.
Brown isn’t the type to let the spotlight get to him and he’ll likely just want to get the game going. However, his teammates may be revved up in order to get him the win on his night, so it should be fun to watch.