LA Kings: Looking Ahead to the Rest of the Month

The LA Kings are off until Saturday where they will be at home to face off against Anaheim. Looking ahead, the Kings’ schedule looks quite favorable.

The LA Kings sit in a fairly good spot in the standings, despite a roller coaster past couple of months. They are 24-13-5 and have lost their last two games by giving up 8 total goals. That wouldn’t be much of an issue if those two teams were really good, but Calgary and Nashville are certainly not the best teams they’ve faced off against. The Ducks will be in town on Saturday, and they’ve really struggled this season as they have been bitten by the injury bug. So if they lose that game, I might go hide under a rock until playoff time. Let’s take a look ahead this month and see what sort of roller coaster ride we’re in for.

After Anaheim, the team will face off against their rivals San Jose. The Sharks got off to a slow start early in the season, but have managed to stay right around average. The have also had their way with Los Angeles, taking two out of the three match-ups this season.  The Sharks’ offense has take quite the hit this year which has been the main reason for their mediocrity. They allow very few goals, but have only scored 108 goals all year. That makes them the fourth lowest scoring team in the league this year. The Kings are right around average in goals scored and have allowed the least goals against in the NHL.

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The Kings will then play host to Pittsburgh before the head down the 5 freeway to face Anaheim once again. The defending champion Penguins are having a rather lackluster first half. At 22-19-3 they are just fifth in a very good Metropolitan division. They have also allowed the seventh most goals in the league while scoring right around league average. Don’t forget though, Sidney Crosby is always a threat.

The Stars and Rangers are really the only other two teams they play that are worth noting for January. The Rangers have 22 wins of their own this season, but you wouldn’t guess that from their stats. New York has had a pretty good defense, a little above league average. However, their offense has been very average. They are fourteenth in the league in goals for through their first  42 games of the season.

Next: Kings' Two Game Loss Recap

The Dallas Stars are having an excellent season with 24 wins. Center Tyler Seguin is having a particularly good year, with 21 goals in his 43 games played. That puts his point total at 40 for the season. The Stars are scoring about three goals a game and averaging roughly 2.7 against them per game. The Kings on the other hand, average 2.3 goals against and right around 3 goals per game. Look for this one to be a classic shootout in Dallas.