There won’t be many mysteries between the Kings and Calgary Flames tonight, and that has little to do with the Sutter vs. Sutter coaching matchup. These teams met only five days ago in Calgary, although the Flames are expected to have a bit of a different look. They’ll have forward Matt Stajan and defenseman Scott Hannan back, but they’ll be without injured forward Curtis Glencross. It’s a meaningful game, in terms of playoff positioning. The Kings are in seventh place in the Western Conference while the Flames are in 12th. A Flames regulation win would close the gap between the teams to five points, while a Kings regulation win would push it to nine points. Willie Mitchell said he expects an even tougher game than the one the Kings faced in Calgary on Saturday.
MITCHELL: “It was a really good game, and I think they’re going to be a much better team this time around. They’ve got some guys back, off injuries. Hannan is going to help settle things down for them on the back end. He has played a lot of games in this league. I think we might see Stajan back. So they’re starting to get some experience back in the lineup, and obviously Cammy is in there, and it always takes a few games for adjustments, so I would expect another hard game, just like every other game is in the NHL. They’re fighting to stay alive in the playoff race. If you get too far back, it’s a tough road back. You’ve got to get to the eighth-place team, and sometimes you have ninth and 10th in front of you, also trying to do the same thing.
“It’s tough. As you can see, we’ve been on a pretty good run and we really haven’t made that big of a move in the standings. So it’s the same things for these teams that are on the outside currently, looking in. They look at games against us as important games to get back in it. It’s a four-point swing. And we look at it the other way, like we have to distance ourselves from teams. So we expect another hard game, no different from the rest.’’
Darryl Sutter said he was not particularly concerned with the changes to the Flames’ lineup…
SUTTER: “They’ve still got their goaltender and they’ve got an awesome defense and they’re really good up the middle. I’m not really worried about the individuals, more than positions.
lets get this goin:
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=150738&cmpid=nhl-rxl-twt
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Lets get Mike Richards involved early! He has been looking okay at best since the return from the Concussion and his playmaking decisions have been average at best, as well. Hopefully his shotout goal last game gets some confindence going for him.
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KC23 Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 2:44 pm
@TD, Tall order when you got Stoll on your RW doing next to nothing. Penner is playing great though, so that is a plus.
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Niko Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 4:13 pm
@KC23, Yea, Stoll has missed some grade A set ups from Richards. Worried he is losing trust in Stoll and will try to do too much himself
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Lake Forest Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
@TD, he got started the last game against the flames. All we can ask for is the same!
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408kingsfan Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
@Lake Forest, Yeah he’s coming on at just the right time in my opinion
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One thing i noticed with their last game was that the Kings looked a bit like a physical team out there. They were hitting people, and i think that along with the usual need for high energy for the whole game, they should really look to continue that physicality. It seemed to really surprise calgary that night and keep them off their game.
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Gary Livingston Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
@Helvetica,
It is so strange…Los Angeles is #2 is total hits this season.
I don’t understand that because, there have only been a handful of games where I am not frustrated by how this team needs to hit more.
It’s the quality of the hits. The last two seasons, the Kings were a meaner team. The hits were bigger and harder and they felt more purposeful. You’d notice the hits more often.
Only a few games have felt that way so far. Usually, against Dallas it is the most obvious. A couple of the games against the Wild felt that way too. Hard fought games.
Weird they are #2.
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FKA PakiFro Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
@Gary Livingston,
I’m still waiting for a doughty-on-hall type hit this year
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KC23 Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:00 pm
@Gary Livingston, I agree. If I hadn’t heard about where we are in hits I would of guessed we were in the low middle of the pack. I too can only remember a few games where I said to myself, wow the King’s are really hitting everything tonight.
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Helvetica Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:37 pm
@Gary Livingston, I agree. I think you’re right about the quality of hits. Our guys, to my memory, have been coming in on the check but not really “finishing” their checks. They get in, make contact, but are mostly focused on tying the guy up rather than driving him through the boards. They have never been a mean team in my opinion, but they were definitely meaner last season and the Calgary game reminded me of that when i watched them because they were out there, flying and hitting, and guys were making a point of finishing their checks.
Regardless, they need to come out flying tonight and I would like to see them put that energy into putting some guys hard into the boards. Doing so takes its toll and by the 3rd period when both teams are maybe slowing down a bit, Calgary’s D will be even further back on their heels and we can start winning a few more of those board battles.
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Sutter says Calgary’s good up the middle? That’s the one thing everybody points out as their weakness! I’ve even heard talk that Cammy could play center (which is where he played his college hockey). You’re pretty weak up the middle when you’re considering putting Cammy at center!
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Shuchuk Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
@jlhamon, Cammy Granato?
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jlhamon Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
@Shuchuk,
haha!! +1
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Dominick Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
@Shuchuk, She could probably still skate circles around a lot of NHL’ers. Too bad she wasn’t born a dude.
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bmova Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
@Dominick, That would’ve been Tony, no?
Possession stats for that Calgary game were heavily in favor of Calgary mainly because Calgary spent a large portion of the game playing behind in the score. Kopi line with Voynov and Mitchell were very dominant statistically, and should be matched up with Whatever line Iginla plays on.
The Kopi line, and the DD and Scuderi pairing dominated the Sedin sisters last game and the Sedins line ended the game with a 40%, while the Kopi’s line with DD, and Scuds was 58%. Keep Kopi’s line head to head against Calgary’s top offensive lines, and try to find a mismatch for Richards line with the 3rd, and 4rth lines.
Do all this against Colorado on Saturday, then fine tune it for Calgary, and the Kings will get 4 points in the next 2 games. Go Kings!
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Dominick Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
OOOPS! that’s 40%fenwick, and 58%fenwick.
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Dominick Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
My sceduling is all messed up. Calgary tonight, Colorado Saturday.
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Any King’s fan with T-shirt connections … I’d like a King’s T-Shirt printed with one of those ugly Sutter sports jacket with “This ain’t baseball” printed on the back.
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Kingdork Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:15 pm
@KC23,
I think Jesse James can help you out with this one.
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Shuchuk Reply:
January 19th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
@KC23, “Old Time Hockey, like Eddie Shore!”
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