GDT: GM #16 LA Kings vs Tampa Bay Lightning @7:30

[kingsboy11]

Tampa Bay Lightning (12-2-2, 26 pts, 1st in Atlantic) @ Los Angeles Kings ( 11-6-2, 24 pts, 1st in Pacific)
Staples Center| Los Angeles, CA
TIME: 7:30 PM PT | TV: FSW | RADIO: 790 KABC

QUICK STATS
Previous meeting: TBL 5-0 2016-17

PP/PK rankings
TBL: 2nd in PP, 9th in PK
LAK: 15th in PP, 1st in PK

FACEOFFS:
TBL: 25th
LAK: 16th

LEADING SCORERS:
TBL: Steven Stamkos, 7 goals, 21 assists, 28 points
LAK: Anze Kopitar, 8 goals, 11 assists, 19 points

LINES*

Alex Iafallo	Anze Kopitar	Dustin Brown
Tanner Pearson	Adrian Kempe	Tyler Toffoli
Andy Andreoff	Nick Shore	Trevor Lewis
Michael Cammalleri	Brooks Laich	Nic Dowd

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Derek Forbort	Drew Doughty
Jake Muzzin	Alec Martinez
Kurtis MacDermid	Oscar Fantenberg

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Jonathan Quick

Extras: Michael Amadio, Christian Folin
Injuries: Marian Gaborik, Kyle Clifford, Jeff Carter


Vladislav Namestnikov-Steven Stamkos-Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat-Brayden Point-Yanni Gourde
Chris Kunitz-Tyler Johnson-Ryan Callahan
Alex Killorn-JT Brown

Victor Hedman-Jake Dotchin
Mikahil Sergachev-Anton Stralman
Brayden Coburn-Dan Girardi
Slater Koekkoek

Peter Budaj (projected starter)
Andrey Vasilevsky

Extras:Gabriel Dumont, Andrej Sustr
Injuries: Cedric Paquette, Eric Condra

*Lines subject to change

NEWS/NOTES

• Tonight's match up will be between the best offensive team and the best defensive team this season. The Tampa Bay Lightning have absolutely lit up the NHL this season having 4 players in the top 25 in points scored this year.
  
• A large part of that production is the return of a healthy Steven Stamkos to the Bolts roster. But historically Stamkos has been more of a goal scorer throughout his career, but this season he has only 7 goals, but a whopping 21 assists for 28 points on the season. His linemate Nikita Kucherov has been the one putting the goals away with 15 goals on the season leading the NHL in goals. And the 3rd partner in crime is another Russian player Vladislav Namestnikov who has filled that beautifully with 7 goals and 10 assists.
  
• But its not just the offense, the defense has been performing as well. Led by the better Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman and offseason acquisition Mikhail Sergachev. Sergachev brought over from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Jonathan Drouin has been averaging 13:40 TOI while Hedman has been averaging 25:35 TOI
• In goal tonight is most likely former Kings goaltender Peter Budaj as Andrey Vasilveky played last night in San Jose. Budaj has only made 2 appearances this season so far with his last start against the Anaheim Ducks back on October 28th. Budaj had a massive season last year for the Los Angeles Kings when Jonathan Quick went down with an injury 20 minutes into the season last year and put up career high numbers in wins, goals against and save% in 53 appearances. Budaj along with Eric Cernak was traded at the 2017 trade deadline for goalie Ben Bishop.
• The Lightning steam rolled the San Jose Sharks by a score of 5-1 last night. The Sharks who started the game with a quick goal did not have anything else for the rest of the night. Goals came from Jake Dotchin, Kucherov, Koekkoek and 2 goals from Namestnikov.
  
• The LA Kings defeated the Anaheim Ducks in a thrilling game in which the Kings came from behind to win in Overtime against their So Cal rivals 4-3.
  
• The game started out with a bang from Kurtis MacDermid on Ondrej Kase and was awarded a 5 minute major and game misconduct. The Kings also had 2 goals disallowed with an offside challenge and a ref blowing a quick whistle. The Kings faced adversity all night long, but still manged to pull out a victory. Goals came from Kopitar, Brown, Kempe and Shore.
  
• If the Kings want a victory tonight against the Lightning, they will need a better start than what they had in Anaheim and will need to clean up a lot of mistakes from the back end. For once the offense is bailing out the defense.

Tweets of the Game!

Click to read more...

 

[tsanuri]

If we play like we did on Tuesday we'll lose.
We can't take the night off tonight. I'm not even sure we can take more than about 3 shifts off tonight. Since the way TB are playing a shift off equals a goal.
Let's keep our perfect record at home in regulation alive with a win.

 

[kings11]

If we play like we did on Tuesday we'll lose.
We can't take the night off tonight. I'm not even sure we can take more than about 3 shifts off tonight. Since the way TB are playing a shift off equals a goal.
Let's keep our perfect record at home in regulation alive with a win.

Is it just me or are we having a bit more difficulty with physical teams we use to dominate?? it seems when we play faster teams, we run and gun a lot better

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Hope Budaj gets a hero's welcome tonight. Dude did everything he could.

 

[Little Psycho]

Uh oh, you busted out the Kempe gifs. Need all the help we can tonight!

AA on the third line, and Amario appears to be an extra.

 

[Legionnaire]

Uh oh, you busted out the Kempe gifs. Need all the help we can tonight!

AA on the third line, and Amario appears to be an extra.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Their entire lineup is a scoring threat. Gonna have to work extra hard tonight.

 

[driller1]

5 of the top 35 point producers (as of this posting on nhl.com) will be playing. Hoping Stevens matches Kopi against Stamkos so that we can see all 5 of those players on the ice at the same time!

And yes, I am just as shocked as you are that Brown is #35.

 

[KingCanadain1976]

I hope its a close game and Budja plays well He deserves its. However a 1 -0 win would be just fine by me Go Kings GO

 

[Little Psycho]

It's so refreshing to read post game quotes and practice quotes that are longer than 2 sentences.

Well at least they are keeping track of DD's ice time.

On any concern over Drew Doughty’s heavy usage, given another top team is next on the schedule:
Drew will tell you he’d wish he played 35 minutes every night. A day like today is more of a maintenance day for guys like Drew, and if you’d track the load over the last, let’s say three days, so you take Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, well, Tuesday he played 35 minutes, today he had a recovery day where he was upstairs with Matt Price and just making sure he’s got a really good recovery, get his body moving and get what he needs so he gets a full day of rest and recovery today and then get ready to play again tomorrow as opposed to some of the guys that skated who play 10 minutes last night, skate for 25 today, and play 10 tomorrow. At the end of the day, it evens out. Drew gets more rest today, those guys get a little more work today, and at the end of the day we’re hoping we keep everybody where they need to be. [Reporter: So it’s in totality-?] Yeah, there’s chronic and acute. Over time we try to track both of those, and like I said, I think we’re way further ahead with that than we were and you’ve got to talk to the player, too. But there are some metrics that can help you figure that out.

November 8 practice quotes: John Stevens; Jon Bradley practice photos - LA Kings Insider

 

[Sol]

Tampa hasn't faced a team like ours.

They will need all their angels by their side to stand a chance.

But don't worry Tampa, we will put you down quickly.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Tampa hasn't faced a team like ours.

They will need all their angels by their side to stand a chance.

But don't worry Tampa, we will put you down quickly.

I remember a few years back Regehr absolutely murdered one of the Euros--can't remember if it were Kucherov or Palat--but that guy wouldn't go anywhere near the corner the rest of the game.

They're fast, but they can be controlled.

Obviously they've evolved a lot and are looking like the early Cup favorite so you're not just gonna push them around, but our team was actually built to handle it once upon a time. Curious to see what happens on that little section when we inevitably trade chances, that should be fun

 

[Basilisk]

I remember a few years back Regehr absolutely murdered one of the Euros--can't remember if it were Kucherov or Palat--but that guy wouldn't go anywhere near the corner the rest of the game.

They're fast, but they can be controlled.

Obviously they've evolved a lot and are looking like the early Cup favorite so you're not just gonna push them around, but our team was actually built to handle it once upon a time. Curious to see what happens on that little section when we inevitably trade chances, that should be fun

As long as MacDermid doesn't take himself outta the game, we should be fine........

 

[Sol]

I remember a few years back Regehr absolutely murdered one of the Euros--can't remember if it were Kucherov or Palat--but that guy wouldn't go anywhere near the corner the rest of the game.

They're fast, but they can be controlled.

Obviously they've evolved a lot and are looking like the early Cup favorite so you're not just gonna push them around, but our team was actually built to handle it once upon a time. Curious to see what happens on that little section when we inevitably trade chances, that should be fun

Don't worry. It was palat.

Our enemies shall quake before us, we shall stomp on their faces and they shall know our fists

 

[tsanuri]

I thought our PDO had been a bit high and might still be at 102.5. But TB is at a whopping 104.1.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Don't worry. It was palat.

Our enemies shall quake before us, we shall stomp on their faces and they shall know our fists

I remember it vividly because I remember that player backing the hell off so Regehr could battle someone else for the puck, then giving RR a timid little whack to the pants, and Robyn turned around and gave him the death stare

 

[mrkolice]

tampa is also damn good coaching, chemistry just flows, with kids drafted very late but making a huge impact. it should be a great game.

 

[lumbergh]

Great game as a measuring stick for the Kings. The Kings have beaten some very good teams (Toronto, Ottawa, Ducks), losing only to Calgary, St. Louis, Toronto, and Nashville, all by one goal (Loss to St. Louis includes an empty net goal). If the Kings come away with a win, there's no denying that they're for real.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

tampa is also damn good coaching, chemistry just flows, with kids drafted very late but making a huge impact. it should be a great game.

I think it might have been Stevens, but someone yesterday pointed out that TB often rolls with 11 forwards/7 D, and they can because their forwards all eat big minutes. Very little time with scrub forwards on the ice means they can feast on matchups that way.

Great game as a measuring stick for the Kings. The Kings have beaten some very good teams (Toronto, Ottawa, Ducks), losing only to Calgary, St. Louis, Toronto, and Nashville, all by one goal (Loss to St. Louis includes an empty net goal). If the Kings come away with a win, there's no denying that they're for real.

Tampa Bay is Toronto but good--explosive offensively but with great defensemen and goaltending. Right now, they're the team to beat. I'd love a win just for main board schadenfreude, but I'm not expecting it, because Tampa is just so f***ing awesome. And they're fun to watch. Tonight should be a doozy.

We've had a bit of a murderer's row of a schedule lately, frankly. Not that divisional rivals are easier, but theoretically there's a bit of a letup in the relentless top-tier teams over the next couple of weeks.

 

[tsanuri]

Looking at their numbers there big period is the second. They have a +13 goal differential. Which just so happens to match our 3rd period numbers. Hoping we can keep them off the board earlier in the game.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Excited to see Namestnikov, Kucherov and Stamkos.

GKG

 

[Jason Squirties]

Don't worry. It was palat.

Our enemies shall quake before us, we shall stomp on their faces and they shall know our fists

Where's the ignore list on this site?

Edit : nm, found it.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

This will be a tough test, Tampa is by far the best team I've seen this season

 

[regulate]

Dermy has been exposed on D lately. This will be a big test for him. Might see limited minutes.

 

[Sol]

Where's the ignore list on this site?

Edit : nm, found it.

LOL wtf?