Game Thread: Los Angeles Kings at Nashville Predators - 10/17/13

[Cobiemonster]

vs.

8:00pm EST/5:00pm PST - Fox Sports West​

KINGS (4-3-0) at PREDATORS (3-3-0)

TV: FS-W, FS-TN

Season series: The first of three season meetings. The Nashville Predators took two of three from the Los Angeles Kings in 2012-13, including a 3-0 victory on Feb. 7 in the lone meeting at Bridgestone Arena.

Big story: After two road losses to start the season, Nashville is 3-1-0 on a five-game homestand that wraps up Thursday against Los Angeles. The Predators will look to move above .500 for the first time this season against the Kings, who are finishing off a four-game road trip through the Southeast.

Team Scope:

Kings: Cross-continent road trips are never easy, but until Tuesday night in Tampa Bay, one might have thought Los Angeles had found a formula for success. The Kings ground out a 2-1 shootout victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday and beat the Florida Panthers 3-0 on Sunday afternoon, before hopping across the state to face the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Against Tampa Bay, things got hairy almost immediately as Los Angeles conceded a goal to Ryan Malone just 19 seconds into the game. Goalie Jonathan Quick was pulled after conceding three goals on 17 shots. Despite controlling much of the play and outshooting the Lightning 31-25, the Kings' three-game winning streak ended abruptly with a 5-1 defeat.

So, how do the Kings bounce back against the Predators, a team looking to defend home ice much like the Lightning successfully did?

"We just get on a plane and go there tonight and be ready to play," coach Darryl Sutter said. "It's not that hard, is it?"

Predators: It may be harder than Sutter and the Kings think. Since the 2005-06 season, only three teams have won more games at home than the Predators. Each of Nashville's three victories during the homestand has come by one goal.

On Tuesday against the Florida Panthers, the Predators took an early lead and held on for a 4-3 victory. Coach Barry Trotz would have preferred an easier win but considered it a learning experience for his young club.

"It was a frustrating game," Trotz said. "I would probably say that game we were probably the most sloppy we've been in all the games this year; not real detailed, making poor judgment errors all over the ice, just not real sharp tonight. But we found a way to win and that's part of learning to win."

Who’s hot: Predators captain Shea Weber scored his first goal and finished with a plus rating for the first time in 2013-14 against Florida. He has three points over his last two games.

Injury report: Los Angeles comes in healthy. … Nashville defenseman Roman Josi (concussion) is questionable for Thursday; forward Viktor Stalberg (shoulder) is expected back in late October.

Los Angeles Kings at Nashville Predators - 10/17/2013

 

[davnlaguna]

Team better show up for this one

 

[Fox4Kings]

Too bad we don't have Bernier, he owns the Preds!

 

[Brahmsian]

GO NASHVILLE!

BEAT SMOGTOWN!

 

[Cobiemonster]

Tonight would be a great win for the Kings - they've seemed to struggle a bit in Nashville the last couple of seasons - a win would be great to wrap up the road trip

 

[davnlaguna]

GO NASHVILLE!

BEAT SMOGTOWN!

Reported

 

[Cobiemonster]

Projected Lines, per LAKingsInsider

Los Angeles Projected Lines

Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Daniel Carcillo – Mike Richards – Jeff Carter
Dwight King – Jarret Stoll – Matt Frattin
Kyle Clifford – Trevor Lewis – Jordan Nolan

Robyn Regehr – Drew Doughty
Willie Mitchell – Slava Voynov
Alec Martinez – Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick
Ben Scrivens

Nashville Projected Lines

Colin Wilson – Mike Fisher – Patric Hornqvist
Gabriel Bourque – Matt Cullen – Craig Smith
Eric Nystrom – David Legwand – Filip Forsberg
Viktor Stalberg – Paul Gaustad – Matt Hendricks

Seth Jones – Shea Weber
Mattias Ekholm – Kevin Klein
Victor Bartley – Ryan Ellis

Pekka Rinne
Carter Hutton

 

[Cobiemonster]

Go Kings Go!!!

 

[Cobiemonster]

Matt Cullen makes it 1-0 Preds

 

[ouendan1]

dumb play by Mitchell on that goal. Quick makes a terrific save, he's not in a position to try to cover it. Mitchell needs to clear that.

 

[Cobiemonster]

dumb play by Mitchell on that goal. Quick makes a terrific save, he's not in a position to try to cover it. Mitchell needs to clear that.

Yeah that and Matt Cullen should not be that open for an easy put in

 

[ouendan1]

I'm not really concerned about Cullen being as wide open as he was. It was a smart play by him, the scramble in front of the net all of the Kings are focused on the puck, he just peels back just enough to where he can watch where the puck is and react.

 

[Cobiemonster]

Slava Voynov scores! Late first period goal, tied at 1-1!

 

[davnlaguna]

Let us hope the rest of the team shows up for period 2 and 3

 

[Johnnydollaz89]

Kings need to win this game and get back on track

 

[pete6835]

Who are all these people???

 

[ouendan1]

Don't know! Hello people who don't normally post to these boards!

 

[Cobiemonster]

Don't know! Hello people who don't normally post to these boards!

I'll be on here regularly now

 

[davnlaguna]

Listening to Preds radio guy. Play by play guy is pretty good. Color guy is awkward, weird pauses and not much to add. They are not too homerish so overall they do alright.

 

[Cobiemonster]

Listening to Preds radio guy. Play by play guy is pretty good. Color guy is awkward, weird pauses and not much to add. They are not too homerish so overall they do alright.

I'm watching the Preds TV feed, they're not bad either I guess