Game 37 Preview: Minnesota at Los Angeles

Los Angeles Projected Starting Goaltender – Jonathan Bernier
Season: 11 GP (9 GS) / 8-2-0 record / 1.95 GAA / .919 Sv% / 0 SHO
Career vs Minnesota: 4 (4) / 2-0-2 / 1.20 / .951 / 2
Last Game vs Minnesota: 3/31/12 / 65 MP / 20-23 + 0/2 shots / 3-4 SOL
2012-13, Home: 6 (6) / 5-0-0 / 1.87 / .927 / 0

Minnesota Projected Starting Goaltender – Niklas Backstrom*
Season: 30 (29) / 19-9-2 / 2.45 / .913 / 1
Career vs Los Angeles: 17 (16) / 7-5-3 / 2.42 / .915 / 2
Last Game vs Los Angeles: 3/30/13 / 65 MP / 28-31 + 1/2 shots / 4-3 SOW
2012-13, Away: 14 (14) / 8-5-1 / 2.75 / .910 / 0
*Minnesota did not hold a morning skate this morning. Despite playing last night, Backstrom should still be the starter.

Los Angeles Leaders
Total Points: Anze Kopitar (10-22=32)
Goals: Jeff Carter (20-4=24)
Assists: Anze Kopitar (10-22=32)
Plus/Minus: Justin Williams (+16; 8-17=25)
Penalty Minutes: Keaton Ellerby (50*; 0-3=3)
*36 of Ellerby’s penalty minutes came as a member of the Florida Panthers.

Minnesota Leaders
Total Points: Mikko Koivu (9-24=33)
Goals: Zach Parise (15-16=31)
Assists: Ryan Suter (3-25=28)
Plus/Minus: Zach Parise (+10; 15-16=31)
Penalty Minutes: Zenon Konopka (96; 0-0=0)

A stick tap goes to: Zenon Konopka. To quote Dustin Penner from an article I wrote last year, “A lot of these guys I think aren’t as big of a Simpsons fan as I am. I remember even a couple of years back with a buddy Zenon Konopka…we would [quote The Simpsons] nonstop all day.” This Thursday, Dustin’s team is playing Zenon’s team! You’re in direct competition!

A fist shake goes to: Last Saturday’s wide-open game. The Kings and Wild will be looking to tighten up from the 4-3 Minnesota shootout win, which featured more three-on-two rushes than either team was comfortable with. To quote Justin Williams after that game, “It was sloppy. There’s no other word to describe it. It was a sloppy game from us.”

Why the Kings need to win this game: The Kings are a stretch of three or four lousy games in a row from being pushed outside of the playoff picture.

Rankings and Statistics
Goals/Game: LAK – 8 / 2.86; MIN – 16 / 2.67
Goals Against/Game: LAK – 9 / 2.47; MIN – t-13 / 2.58
Power Play: LAK – 13 / 19.0%; MIN – 21 / 17.5%
Penalty Kill: LAK – 11 / 81.7%; MIN – 14 / 81.4%
Shots/Game: LAK – 10 / 30.1; MIN – 16 / 28.7
Shots Against/Game: LAK – 3 / 24.5; MIN – 12 / 28.4
Faceoffs: LAK – 10 / 51.3%; MIN – 4 / 52.3%
Save Percentage: LAK – 23 / .899; MIN – 14 / .909

Projected Lines – Los Angeles

Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Tyler Toffoli – Mike Richards – Jeff Carter
Dwight King – Jarret Stoll – Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford – Brad Richardson – Jordan Nolan

Jake Muzzin – Drew Doughty
Rob Scuderi – Slava Voynov
Robyn Regehr – Keaton Ellerby

Jonathan Bernier
Jonathan Quick

Notes: One of Colin Fraser, Brad Richardson and Tyler Toffoli will be scratched tonight; it is also feasible that Richardson could skate on the left with Mike Richards and Jeff Carter should Toffoli be scratched or moved down. Tuesday marked Toffoli’s first NHL game as a left wing; he saw the majority of his shifts on the right side after the first period. Drew Doughty (176 points) is one point behind Jay Wells (177 points) for seventh place overall amongst franchise defensemen. As always, line projections are educated assessments and not definite alignments.

Projected Lines – Minnesota

Zach Parise – Mikko Koivu – Jason Pominville
Pierre-Marc Bouchard – Kyle Brodziak – Devin Setoguchi
Cal Clutterbuck – Mikael Granlund – Charlie Coyle
Michael Rupp – Zenon Konopka – Torrey Mitchell

Ryan Suter – Jonas Brodin
Clayton Stoner – Jared Spurgeon
Brett Clark – Tom Gilbert

Niklas Backstrom
Darcy Kuemper

Notes: Lines with a little bit of help from Michael Russo. Dany Heatley was injured in a postgame scrum with San Jose’s Marc-Edouard Vlasic last night; Vlasic was fined $8,378.38 for his role in the altercation. Backstrom started and stopped 29 of 33 shots against the Sharks. Minnesota is 8-3-0 in its last 11 games. As always, line projections are educated assessments and not definite alignments.