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L.A. KINGS (25-10-4) at CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (27-7-7) 7PM Central/5 Pacific TSN2, NBCSN, CSN-CH/WGN RADIO
LAST 10 GAMES: Los Angeles 7-3-0, Chicago 7-1-2
THE BUZZ
The Kings like to play a puck possession style, but they seem to struggle against the Blackhawks. Maybe that's because it's hard to possess the puck when you can't get it. The Hawks are a marginally faster team than the Kings and that has told the story of most of their meetings the last two years.
Much has been made of the Hawks' drop off in penalty killing this season, but that has been offset or even overcome by a couple of contrary statistics. First, the Hawks' power play has improved dramatically: now 3rd in the league.
The other area where the Hawks have improved since last season is in faceoff wins. Readers should note that Michal Handzus (49%) was acquired late last season, essentially replacing Dave Bolland, with a career FO% in the low 40s. And Marcus Kruger's FO% has improved to near 58%, a huge improvement over his previous seasons.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
LOS ANGELES
Dwight King Anze Kopitar Jeff Carter Dustin Brown Mike Richards Justin Williams Trevor Lewis Jarret Stoll Tyler Toffoli Kyle Clifford Colin Fraser Jordan Nolan
Jake Muzzin Drew Doughty Robyn Regehr Slava Voynov Alec Martinez Matt Greene
Martin Jones
CHICAGO
Patrick Sharp Jonathan Toews Marian Hossa Kris Versteeg Michal Handzus Patrick Kane Bryan Bickell Andrew Shaw Brandon Saad Brandon Bollig Marcus Kruger Ben Smith
Duncan Keith Brent Seabrook Niklas Hjalmarsson Johnny Oduya Nick Leddy Mike Kostka
Antti Raanta
9 HAWKS IN SOCHI?
Nhl.com is projecting as many as 9 Hawks to represent their countries in the Sochi Olympics: Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp for Canada, Patrick Kane for the U.S., Marian Hossa and Michal Handzus for Slovakia, and Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya for Sweden.
All for now,
JJ