Following a heartbreaking shootout loss on Thursday night, LA coach Jim Hiller will send his squad back onto the ice at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night. The Kings will be attempting to secure their first home win against another red-hot team in the New Jersey Devils.
Coming into play, Hiller’s group has a point streak of seven straight games, where they’ve posted a 4-0-3 record. Despite any success achieved over the past two weeks, there’s likely not one game the Kings can point to with a strong sense of pride and accomplishment. Players and coaches continue to talk about still needing to put together a complete 60-minute effort.
On the bright side, forward Trevor Moore could return to the lineup after missing Thursday night’s contest for personal matters. Moore’s latest absence adds to the long list of games missed by individuals this season. The fact that Hiller is dealing with different lineups every night at least raises the question of whether the inconsistency is contributing to the hills and valleys of the season so far.
For the Kings to get back to their winning ways on home ice, they’ll likely need Anze Kopitar and Andrei Kuzmenko to chip in some offense. It’s been a slow start for both forwards to this point, and getting of those two going soon would only help boost the team’s overall production.
Flipping focus back to the defense, Hiller followed through with his pregame comments about finding a way to get Brandt Clarke more ice time. Clarke, deservedly so, played over 20 minutes two nights ago — an increase of about seven minutes compared to Tuesday’s game. LA’s budding superstar has been rather dangerous this season on a fairly consistent bases, and it was good to see the young phenom rewarded with additional opportunities.
Statistically Speaking
— The Kings have won four of their last five games (4-1-0) against New Jersey at Crypto.com Arena.
— Adrian Kempe is on an active seven-game point streak (3G, 7A). This seven-game stretch has him tied with Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl for the third-longest active run in the League behind Utah’s Nick Schmaltz (8 GP) and Montreal’s Nick Suzuki (10 GP).
— Kempe also enters Saturday’s contest against the Devils with five points (4G, 1A) in his last five home games against New Jersey, dating back to Dec. 6, 2018.
— And one more tidbit on Kempe, he’s still sitting one goal shy of 200 in a Kings uniform. When he scores that milestone marker, he’ll become the 10th player to reach that number in franchise history (and the first since Dustin Brown did it on Nov. 26, 2014). How many of the other eight players can you name? Answer below.
— No team has more shorthanded goals so far this season than the Kings’ three.
— Nine players have scored 200 goals in a Kings uniform: Robitaille (557), Dionne (550), Kopitar (440), Taylor (431), Nicholls (327), Brown (325), Goring (275), Gretzky (246), and Simmer (222). Kempe enters play tonight at 199.
What You May Have Missed
Kings Of The Podcast Ep. 250: Milestones and Memories LINK
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Devils
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Armia
Moore – Danault – Laferriere
Malott – Turcotte – Perry
Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Anderson – Ceci
Kuemper (starter)
Forsberg
Likely scratches: (F) Helenius and (D) Moverare
Injured Reserve: Burroughs
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 6:00 pm Pacific Time and will be televised locally by FanDuel Sports. Additionally, a Kings radio feed is available on the ESPN LA app.
Get to know new Kings play-by-play voice John Kelly by checking out his interview here. He tells some interesting stories about joining the Kings broadcasts and what it was like calling games against them for most of his career.
Across the Ice
New Jersey is coming off a 5-2 loss against San Jose on Thursday. Here’s how they lined up in that matchup:
Palat – J. Hughes – Bratt
Meier – Hischier – Mercer
Gritsyuk – Lammikko – Brown
Cotter – Glendening – Noesen
Siegenthaler – Hamilton
Dillon – Nemec
L. Hughes – Casey
Allen
Markstrom
On This Day in Kings History
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