Game 62 Preview: Carolina at Los Angeles

Los Angeles Kings (33-22-6) vs Carolina Hurricanes (26-24-9)
Saturday, March 1, 2014, 1:00 p.m. PT
Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
Referees: #36 Dean Morton, #4 Wes McCauley
Linesmen: #74 Lonnie Cameron, #66 Darren Gibbs
FOX Sports West, KEIB 1150 AM

Los Angeles Projected Starting Goaltender – Jonathan Quick*
2013-14 Season: 33 GP (33 GS) / 17-13-2 record / 2.11 GAA / .914 Sv% / 4 SHO
Career vs Carolina: 1 (1) / 1-0-0 / 0.92 / .964 / 0
Last Game vs Carolina: 10/11/13 / 65 MP / 27/28 + 3/3 saves / 2-1 SOW
2013-14, Home: 20 (20) / 11-8-1 / 2.26 / .902 / 2
*There are no morning skates for afternoon games. The projection of Jonathan Quick is an educated assessment.

Carolina Projected Starting Goaltender – Anton Khudobin*
2013-14 Season: 21 GP (20 GS) / 13-7-0 record / 2.18 GAA / .926 Sv% / 0 SHO
Career vs Los Angeles: First appearance
Last Game vs Los Angeles: First appearance
2013-14, Away: 8 (8) / 5-3-0 / 2.62 / .917 / 0
*Carolina has not announced its starter, though after the team’s loss in Dallas on Thursday, Head Coach Kirk Mueller was complementary of Anton Khudobin, who has drawn the majority of the team’s recent starts. The Hurricanes play on Sunday in Anaheim.

2013-14 Los Angeles Leaders
Total Points: Anze Kopitar (19-31=50)
Goals: Jeff Carter (21-18=39)
Assists: Anze Kopitar (19-31=50)
Plus/Minus: Anze Kopitar (+24; 19-31=50)
Penalty Minutes: Kyle Clifford (63; 3-2=5)
Time On Ice: Drew Doughty (25:52; 8-23=31)

2013-14 Carolina Leaders
Total Points: Eric Staal (16-31=47)
Goals: Jeff Skinner (23-17=40)
Assists: Eric Staal (16-31=47)
Plus/Minus: Alexander Semin (+9; 15-15=30)
Penalty Minutes: Eric Staal (52; 16-31=47)
Time On Ice: Justin Faulk (23:47; 3-20=23)

Rankings and Statistics
Goals/Game: LAK – 27 / 2.31; CAR – t-20 / 2.48
Goals Against/Game: LAK – 1 / 2.10; CAR – 17 / 2.75
Power Play: LAK – 27 / 13.9%; CAR – 29 / 13.5%
Penalty Kill: LAK – 12 / 82.6%; CAR – t-20 / 80.8%
Shots/Game: LAK – t-10 / 31.0; CAR – t-8 / 31.1
Shots Against/Game: LAK – 3 / 26.8; CAR – 17 / 30.2
Faceoffs: LAK – t-1 / 53.3%; CAR – t-5 / 51.9%
Save Percentage: LAK – t-2 / .922; CAR – t-19 / .909

Los Angeles Projected Lines

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

Jake Muzzin – Drew Doughty
Robyn Regehr – Slava Voynov
Willie Mitchell – Alec Martinez

Jonathan Quick
Martin Jones

Level of confidence in projected lines: C-. The Kings do not hold morning skates for afternoon games, so the above projection is a carbon copy of the lineup used in Thursday’s win at Calgary.

Notes and milestones: Los Angeles is 32-26-10 all-time against the Carolina franchise, which includes a record of 19-11-3 at home. The Kings have won four of the last five meetings overall. The Hurricanes have not visited Staples Center since a 4-3 Kings win on October 20, 2010. Ryan Smyth, Michal Handzus, Anze Kopitar and Andrei Loktionov scored for the Kings in the game. Loktionov’s goal was the first of his NHL career, while Jeff Skinner scored the first goal of his career for Carolina. … Los Angeles is 14-7-3 against the Eastern Conference and 6-4-1 against the Metropolitan Division. … The Kings have 10 shutouts this season (Quick 4, Jones 3, Scrivens 3). The club record is 11, set in 2011-12. … Los Angeles is attempting to win four consecutive games for the third time this season. The last time it happened was when they won six straight from December 2-14. … Both Los Angeles and Carolina have scored 147 goals this season. … When the teams met in Raleigh on October 11, the Kings won a season-best 68.6% of faceoffs. Mike Richards won 12-of-14 draws. … Anze Kopitar has seven points (3-4=7) in the last four games. … Tyler Toffoli has four points (1-3=4) in the last four games. … Jonathan Quick has stopped 49 of the last 50 shots he has faced. … Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar have scored 192 career goals, which places them in a ninth place tie on the team’s all-time goal scoring registry. Kopitar has played 118 fewer games than Brown. … Jeff Carter has 25 points (13-12=25) in 25 career games against Carolina.

Carolina Projected Lines

Jiri Tlusty – Eric Staal – Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner – Jordan Staal – Tuomo Ruutu
Drayson Bowman – Riley Nash – Radek Dvorak
Nathan Gerbe – Manny Malhotra – Patrick Dwyer

Andrej Sekera – Justin Faulk
Ron Hainsey – John-Michael Liles
Jay Harrison – Brett Bellemore

Anton Khudobin
Cam Ward

Notes and milestones: Lines via Canes Country. … There was no update yesterday on forward Alexander Semin, who left Thursday’s game against Dallas with a lower-body injury and did not return. … The Hurricanes are playing their third game in a season-long five-game, 10-day road trip. … Carolina’s power play, which has been 20th or worse in the NHL in each of the last five seasons, is 0-for-12 over the last three games. … The Hurricanes lead the league with nine shorthanded goals. … Carolina has 486 penalty minutes, the second-lowest total in the league. They are tied with Detroit with a league-low seven fighting majors. … The Hurricanes, who play in Anaheim on Sunday, have won six straight front ends of back-to-back sets. … Anton Khudobin has started 18 of the lsat 19 games. … This marks the first time the teams have played multiple games in the same season since 2002-03.