Before the Four Nations Faceoff gets underway early next week in Canada, the LA Kings will aim to add one more victory on Saturday night when they host their crosstown rivals from Anaheim.
Among the many pregame storylines, here are just a few:
— LA continues to hold the NHL’s best home record at 17-3-1.
— They’re averaging five goals per game in February, all while holding a perfect 3-0-0 record.
— Kevin Fiala has 13 points over the last 11 games. He’s recorded five goals in his past three games and nearly had another two-goal game last night (only to have this goal overturned).
— Adrian Kempe has recorded 30 points (16G, 14A) in 35 career games vs. Anaheim, including a seven-game home point streak against the Ducks.
— The Kings are 9-1-0 in their last 10 games against the Ducks.
— Mikey Anderson is definitely out tonight, per coach Jim Hiller. Further, our sources have indicated he is set to return for the Kings first game after the 4 Nations.
— Trevor Lewis is set to (FINALLY!) get his silver stick tonight, as part of a pre-game ceremony that will honor him playing 1,000 NHL games. Of course, this all originally supposed to happen back in early December but had to be rescheduled due to an injury and then later because of the wildfires in SoCal.
— Friday’s win over Dallas improved LA’s record to 50-29-7 under Hiller. That made him the fastest head coach in franchise history to reach the 50-win mark, doing so in 86 games.
— Alex Turcotte, Alex Laferriere, and several of their teammates are headed to Cabo next week for a nice vacation during the 4NF break. And, of course, the team will first gather on Sunday for their annual Super Bowl party.
— Drew Doughty will potentially be on an airplane tomorrow, as he’s expected to join Team Canada for their first 4NF practice on Monday. All indications are, he’s the defenseman who will be tapped to replaced Alex Pietrangelo.
Pushing all of this information to the side for a moment, the Kings still have a game to play. Two important points are at stake on Saturday, against a Ducks team that is been much different over the past few months. For starters, they’re more than 20 points ahead of their pace at this point last season. And they’re not just padding their record by beating bottom-feeders. The Ducks are 6-2-0 against the current top five teams in the NHL. There’s definitely some momentum building down the 5 Freeway. While probably not a playoff team this season, the Ducks will be playing meaningful games down the stretch for the first time in a long time. With that in mind, tonight doesn’t appear to be an easy contest for the Kings.
Is this setting up as a trap game for LA, especially coming off what felt like a ‘big win’ for the group 24 hours ago — something Hiller even acknowledged during his postgame comments to the media:
“We beat [the Stars] earlier in the year, but they smoked us, they beat us pretty good. We got lucky, we kind of stole the game earlier,” said LA’s bench boss. “[This was] the best we’ve played against them. I thought it was one of our best games of the year, to be honest with you.”
He also waxed on poetically about Anze Kopitar’s first goal of the calendar year.
“[It] was obviously the biggest goal of the game,” Hiller remarked. “If you go back and look at it, it’s so subtle. Of everything that happened on that goal, Kopi dug in and chased the puck down and got there first; [he] knew Mooresie was coming and just poked it against the wall so it would stay there, and the player would take him. It was just such an elite play. Of course, it all ended up very good and he scored the goal, but the play made there — boy, that was probably the play of the game.”
After tonight, Kings management is expected to tinker with the roster a bit in advance of the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline. We broke it all down here:
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Ducks
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Turcotte – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Danault – Moore
Fiala – Byfield – Laferriere
Jeannot – Lewis – Thomas
Gavrikov – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Kuemper (starter)
Rittich
Likely scratches: (F) N/A and (D) Anderson, Burroughs, Englund
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 7:30 pm Pacific Time and will be televised locally by FanDuel Sports Network. Additionally, a Kings radio feed is available on the ESPN LA app (which is the new home for Kings radio this season, they’ve moved off of the iHeart platform).
More on the ongoing TV situation here.
For those live in attendance, the LA Kings Booster Club will offer their popular ‘Puck for a Buck’ contest — featuring Trevor Lewis for this game. Just $1 could win you an autographed puck from an NHL star. Visit their table outside sections 317-318 on the upper concourse for more information.
Across the Ice
Anaheim is coming off a 2-1 victory over Dallas on Tuesday. Here’s how they lined up for that contest:
Zegras – Carlsson – Killorn
Vatrano – Strome – Terry
Gauthier – McTavish – Fabbri
Johnston – Lundeström – Leason
LaCombe – Gudas
Zellweger – Trouba
Dumoulin – Helleson
Gibson
On This Day in Kings History
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