Flames: 26-29-3, 55 points, 6th in Pacific, 12th in West, 25th in NHL.
Kings: 34-20-4, 72 points, 1st in Pacific, 4th in West, 7th in NHL.
The Flames continue their road trip through California tonight in L.A., a place where they've had some success compared to others over recent meetings. In their one and only meeting so far this year, the Flames lost 4-1 at a New Year's Eve game on home ice. Hopefully things go better on the road against a team who's had a resurgence after a poor year last year. The Kings have lead the Pacific division by a large margin all year, but with the recent surge by the Ducks, that lead has dwindled to just 2 points. The Kings are 4-5-1 in their last 10, and have struggled just a little against the better teams in the NHL of late. However, this is a very good team and shouldn't be taken lightly under any circumstances.
What are the Kings good at? Just about everything. 4th in GA/G at 2.33. 5th in Power Play at 22.2%. 11th in Penalty Kill at 82.2%. 13th in GF/G at 2.67. 2nd in shots/game at 32.5. 6th in shots against/game at 28.2. 1st in Shot Attempt % (basically Corsi) at 56.33%. And really haven't relied on luck all that much with just a 991 Shooting+Save %, ranked 23rd in the league. Realistically, the Kings should be considered a cup favorite yet again, meaning tonight will not be easy for a Flames team that has struggled in all areas not called 5 on 5 goal scoring all year long. It could be another long night.
We're at that point in the season that the Flames coaches, management, and players are likely to call it a year and start moving veteran players and giving prospects a chance to play. Don't get too hung up on results going forward. Look for trends with specific players, team play, cohesion, etc. This team is still building and has lots of pieces to be excited about. I doubt you see a lot of wins with either Hiller or Ortio in net the rest of the way anyway, so look at everything except how many goals go in the net against us.
Roster Notes: With the Granlund trade and subsequent assignment of Shinkaruk to Stockton, the Flames have a little more flexibility in their roster for tonight. It's possible that things are being left open for Russell to return to the lineup, but no word on him playing tonight. He might have a small lingering issue that requires rest, but I wouldn't be shocked if he was being held out intentionally while a trade gets finalized. This probably doesn't mean anything, but Wotherspoon wasn't on the Flames active roster this morning, however it's likely to be a clerical error since the website is notoriously inaccurate. The Kings could be without Anze Kopitar tonight as he sat out their last game on Saturday, along with Jordan Nolan who are both day to day. Kopitar, sounded very confident that he'll be back shortly, and has missed very few games in his NHL career, so I would be prepared to see him tonight. The Kings are also without Marion Gaborik long term, as he's questionable to even be ready for the playoffs after a knee injury last week. Matt Greene is out for the season with shoulder surgery.
Flames
Gaudreau-Monahan-Hudler
Colborne-Backlund-Frolik
Ferland-Bennett-Jones
Bouma-Stajan-Jooris/Bollig?
Giordano-Brodie
Engelland-Hamilton
Wotherspoon-Nakladal
Hiller?
Kings
Lucic-Carter-Toffoli
Pearson-Lecavalier-Brown
King-Shore-Lewis
Clifford-Andreoff-Mersch
Muzzin-Doughty
Martinez-Schenn
McNabb-McBain
Quick
Go Flames Go!!!!!!
p.s.~ Seeing that this game starts a 10:30 P.M. for me, I will probably be in bed already with a 6 A.M. rise time tomorrow. I am relying on you all to give me some thorough reporting on the game tonight that I can read tomorrow. Thanks!