Kevin Fiala has been playing great since being a healthy scratch
Kevin Fiala had a really tough stretch earlier this season that included a bad penalty late in the first game against the San Jose Sharks. He would then be benched in the next game after another ugly penalty and then was a healthy scratch after missing a team meeting.
However, since returning to the lineup Kevin Fiala has been playing incredible and continued that level of play against the Minnesota Wild with a power play goal in the second. He now has six points in four games and it has been great to see him bounce back for the Los Angeles Kings.
David Rittich comes up big against the Minnesota Wild
With back-to-back road games, the Los Angeles Kings were almost certainly going to have Darcy Kuemper and David Rittich split the responsibilities in these games. Based on the opponents, and considering the Wild are the better team right now compared to the Predators, I expected Rittich to start the first game and Kuemper to play against the Wild.
However, Jim Hiller decided to flip that and it worked out really well for the Kings as Darcy Kuemper got the shutout against the Predators and Rittich had an equally impressive performance. While he did give up one goal, the Minnesota Wild entered Tuesday in the Top 10 in goals scored per game.
This would actually end up being the first game all season that the Wild had fewer than two goals and tonight was easily David Rittich's best performance of the season.