The first major road trip of the season is under way as the Kings start a 5-game eastern swing here starting with Philadelphia tonight.
The Kings will face the Flyers, the Pens and Red Wings on a back to back, the Hurricanes, and then turn back west to head to Dallas. There are a couple of real solid hockey clubs on this trip and one back to back, so it will be interesting to see how the team does overall. They are carrying a 6-game winning streak into the road trip, which means in terms of play quality the team is probably starting from the best possible standpoint.
However, they will potentially be without No. 1 center Anze Kopitar.
Kopitar left at the 11 minutes mark of Sunday's game after taking a hit from Columbus's Tim Erixon.
Lisa Dillman of the LA Times reported late last night that the Kings were looking into an emergency call up situation with the NHLPA if Kopitar wasn't ready to go today. Jordan Weal perhaps? Maybe Nick Shore? Weal would have to be the guy to come up though if that is the case. The center has been extremely impressive in his professional career thus far with Manchester and had a stellar camp this year.
It's all very tentative at this point, that much is for sure.
On the Gaborik front, the forward skated on his own on Saturday which is definitely a good sign. The Kings have been very tight lipped about what exactly has been bothering Gaborik, however we are now going on 5+ games of absence for the talented winger. He did not travel with the team so if he is skating now he may be ready to roll when the Kings return to take on the Islanders next Thursday. The Kings top line has looked very tame without the dynamic duo of Gaborik/Kopitar. Hopefully Gaborik will be ready for a return soon because, no offense to Brown or King, but who really wants to see a top line of Brown-Kopitar-King for an extended time?
(Help me Marian Gaborik, you're my only hope....)
The Voynov situation is getting very interesting as details have trickled out slowly regarding the incident. Now it's being reported quite heavily that it was a "Misunderstanding" there was a "Significant language barrier" and that Slava Voynov's wife, Marta Varlamova, didn't want Voynov to be arrested.
Honestly, who knows what is what here. The fact remains that the Kings are in a pretty mad cap crunch due to injuries and the indefinite suspension of Voynov while the criminal investigation continues.
Will they get cap relief from the NHLPA? Will they be granted the emergency call up? Who knows.
In the meantime, enjoy this fight that turned into a hockey game between our beloved California cohorts.
Speaking of California teams be sure to check out the last blog which broke down how difficult the road trip was for teams having to play all three on a single trip
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