The Blues extend their stay in Southern California for one more match-up, against the Los Angeles Kings. Hopefully, Coach Payne and his assistants have been working on special teams. Both our power play AND the penalty kill units look a little lost out there on the ice. They will need to take every advantage of their power play opportunities when facing the Kings. Our 1967 classmate in LA has been steadily working on becoming a true contender, and have built quite a formidable team. Their latest acquisition was the offseason trade for Philadelphia center Mike Richards. A talented two-way player, Mike Richards is best known for his LEADERSHIP! (cue Pierre). The move surprised many around the league, as Philly wasn't expected to be trading away their captain that was signed through 2020. They did, though, and now LA has that much more LEADERSHIP added to their team. Some of our Blues players may have to channel his inner Mike Richards to lead St Louis to victory tonight. Coaches can only do so much from the bench; it's going to take someone taking charge of things out on the ice.
Leaders And Followers / Bad Religion
The Enemy: The Kings have a lot of firepower at their disposal: Anze Kopitar, Justin Williams, and Dustin Brown were already leaders up front, and now they've added Mike Richards and Simon Gagne. Kopitar leads the team with 7 points in 4 games (3G /4A). He also leads the team in "times confused with Marty Feldman". Their blueline ain't too shabby either, although Drew Doughty is now earning that hefty new contract on the IR. Jack Johnson is still there, though, and definitely needs to be watched. He already has 2 game-winning goals to his credit. And of course, don't forget Backes and Langenbrunner's teammate from the Olympics, Jonathan Quick. In his 3 starts thus far, Quick has posted a .950 SV% / 1.57 GAA stat line. Suffice it to say, Quick is off to a fast start.
Sorry.
Further Reading:
Puck Daddy LA Kings Season Preview
Blues vs Kings coverage
Final Verse: The puck drops at 9:30 St Louis time, and the GDT will drop around that time, too. The broadcasts are on the usual outlets, FSMW for TV, and KMOX 1120 AM for radio. Until then, this is our pregame warmup. Gather around, bask in the glow of Word Series fever, bemoan late-night weekday games, and marvel at this save (or is it?) by Jonathan Quick:
Jonathan Quick Supernatural Save (slow motion) (via PygmyPuff2133)
LGB!
-CrossCheckRaise