The Royal Week Ahead: Kings to battle FLA, TB and CHI
By Matt Pelkey
The Royal Week Ahead is a weekly feature on RinkRoyalty.com that looks into the Los Angeles Kings’ games for the upcoming week.
This week, from November 23-30, the Kings play 3 games. The team will wrap up a five-game road trip with a pair of battles in Florida against the Panthers and Lightning before returning home to host the Blackhawks on the weekend.
Monday, November 23 @ Florida Panthers – 4:30 p.m. (PT)/ 7:30 p.m. (ET)
One of the best things about sports is the fact that, when you lose, you often get a chance at forgetting about it quickly and work your way back into the win column. The Kings head south to Sunrise, Florida for a meeting with the Panthers just one day after dropping a 4-3 decision in Carolina against the Hurricanes.
Monday’s game against the Panthers will be the second and final meeting of the season between the two clubs after L.A. won the first meeting 4-1 at Staples Center back on November 7.
In that game, Jeff Carter (1g,1a), Tyler Toffoli (2a) and Milan Lucic (1g) were awarded the games three stars while Jonathan Quick made 18 saves for the win.
For the Kings, Monday’s game is a welcomed bounce-back opportunity, for L.A. is 8-2 in their previous 10 meetings against Florida. Working in favor of the Kings will be special teams. Although they surrendered two power play goals to Carolina just a day earlier, L.A. owns the league’s 5th-best road power play, scoring on 26.1% of their chances through eight games. They have also been getting the job done when a man short, too. The Kings rank 10th in the NHL in road penalty killing with a 82.8% success rate compared to their 7th-ranked home penalty kill (85.7%).
The Panthers are likely just hoping for a disciplined game as they 28th overall with a 71.88% penalty killing rate on home ice. Through 11 home games, their power play rate of 30.95 at BB&T Center is good for 3rd in the league.
Wednesday, November 25 @ Tampa Bay Lightning – 4:30 p.m. (PT)/7:30 p.m. (ET)
On Wednesday the Kings will battle the Lightning for the first of two games this season. In fact, two of L.A.’s next five games will be against Tampa Bay as the Lightning will visit Staples Center on December 6 in the last game of a four-game home stand for the Kings.
Feb 16, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Kings center Tyler Toffoli (73) takes a shot against Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) as defenseman Nikita kucherov (86) watches in the second period at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Last season L.A. went a perfect 2-0 against Tampa, outscoring them 7-4 in the process. The Kings are 6-3-1 in their previous 10 meetings versus the Lightning.
Tampa, winners of two straight, are coming off a 5-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday and will face off with the Kings after three days of rest. In the win over Anaheim, Steven Stamkos, the team’s leading scorer with 17 points, scored two goals and added an assist. Stamkos is scoring on 18.6% of his shots, good for 4th in the NHL with players with 50 or more shots.
L.A. will obviously keep a close eye on Stamkos during five-on-five play but will need to keep extra attention to the star on the power play. Stamkos sits 3rd in the league in power play goals with 6.
Saturday, November 28 vs. Chicago Blackhawks – 7:30 p.m. (PT)/10:30 p.m. (ET)
Ah, home sweet home.
After wrapping up a five-game road trip out East, the Kings return home to Staples Center where they’ll face the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. It will be the second of three meetings with Chicago this year after the Blackhawks took the first meeting in the Windy City, 4-2.
In the first contest, the Kings held a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes before Patrick Kane knotted the game 1:22 into the final frame. Teuvo Teravainen and Artem Anisimov scored third period markers to steal the two points from L.A. Goaltender Corey Crawford was solid, turning away 33 of 35 shots.
Saturday’s meeting will be the sixth and final game in Chicago’s six-game road swing, and it won’t be an easy finish. The game will be the Blackhawks’ third game in four nights, playing in San Jose and Anaheim before getting to L.A.
Entering the week, Chicago boasted two players in the top 10 in points in Patrick Kane (1st, 32 points) and rookie Artemi Panarain (10th, 21 points). Always a scoring threat, Kane is tied for the league-lead with 19 assists and is 2nd in the NHL with 11 power play points.
Both the Kings and Blackhawks have hit some bumps in the road lately and Saturday’s game will be a test to see where each team is at as we pass through the quarter-mark of the season.
vs Western Conference
Record: 8-5
Goals for: 32
Goals against: 31
Power play: 7-for-44
vs Eastern Conference
Record: 4-3
Goals for: 19
Goals against: 14
Power play: 6-for-19