December 8 morning skate notes, Kings Weekly preview, Zatkoff starts?

Good morning, Insiders. Believe it or not, there is a hockey game today, one between the Los Angeles Kings and the Carolina Hurricanes. The Kings are 35-28-10 all-time against the Canes (and Whalers), who haven’t won in Los Angeles since December 8, 2005, a game 11 years ago in which Erik Cole scored twice and Justin Williams scored once to pace the visitors to a 3-0 lead before Jeff Cowan and Eric Belanger brought the score within one with third period markers. Goaltenders that night were Mathieu Garon and Martin Gerber. Carolina went on to win the Stanley Cup some seven months later.

Lines! There were no changes, based on line rushes:

Gaborik-Kopitar-Lewis
Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
King-Dowd-Brown
Clifford-Shore-Nolan
Andreoff-Setoguchi

Forbort-Doughty
Muzzin-Martinez
Gravel-Greene
Gilbert

-Jeff Zatkoff was the first goaltender to leave the ice and is expected to start in net for the first time since November 11, He is yet to be credited with a 60-minute performance this season, having logged 38:56 in San Jose on opening night, 58:28 at home to Philadelphia two nights later, 40:00 in Minnesota on October 18, 39:39 in Ottawa on November 11 before leaving the game prior to the third period, and 40:00 in a 4-3 win at Arizona on December 1.

-Peter Budaj remained on the ice for extra work with Devin Setoguchi, Andy Andreoff and Tom Gilbert and was later joined by Brayden McNabb (collarbone). None are expected to play tonight; McNabb remains on injured reserve and got work in with skating coach Dave Cruikshank after Budaj, Setoguchi, Andreoff and Gilbert left the ice.

-The Hurricanes were unable to hold three different two-goal leads and fell 6-5 in a shootout in Anaheim last night as Nick Ritchie and Corey Perry scored in the final four minutes of the game to force overtime. Still, Carolina boasts the league’s top penalty kill at 91.7% and is a perfect 14-for-14 over their last four games. There are some very good players on the Canes’ blue line beyond Justin Faulk and Noah Hanifin who aren’t household names; players like Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin fill out a mobile and talented back end. “Just do last night, how dynamic their defense is and Faulk is,” Darryl Sutter said. “They have a lot of good shot attempts and Pesce has a bunch of shot attempts and the speed of them, it’s significant. It’s a reason that their team has made a big jump in terms of their whole [performance]. There’s a lot of things they have going for them, if you look at it, in terms of possession and checking and all those things. For the data that matters, they’re a very good hockey club.” Speaking of the data, there are some similarities between the teams: Los Angeles ranks second in Corsi-for (53.9%), first in SA60 (25.6) and 20th in shooting percentage (8.5%), while Carolina ranks fourth in Corsi-for (52.5%), fifth in SA60 (27.8) and 23rd in shooting percentage (8.0%). Bill Peters, the Hurricanes’ coach, won the Memorial Cup with the Spokane Chiefs in 2008 with a team that included Dustin Tokarski, Tyler Johnson, Jared Cowen and Jared Spurgeon. Cam Ward faced 38 shots through overtime and four additional shooters in the shootout, so there is the raised possibility that the Kings could see Michael Leighton tonight. Eddie Lack (concussion), Jordan Staal (concussion), Elias Lindholm (upper-body) and Brian Bickell (multiple sclerosis) are out; all but Lindholm are currently on injured reserve.

–This is when you know you’re doing a poor job of analyzing advanced stats.

-The NHL Network compiled a list of the 40 greatest NHL goaltenders of all-time. and Jonathan Quick checked in at #16, between Turk Broda and Henrik Lundqvist. He’s the highest rated active goalie. Ex-Kings on the list: Terry Sawchuk (#4), Grant Fuhr (#11), Billy Smith (#22) and Rogie Vachon (#25).

-Kings Weekly returns after tonight’s post-game Kings Live coverage and contains this vintage clip, featuring Bob Miller in a snapback Kings hat while interviewing a very young-looking Wayne Gretzky. How would The Great One describe himself as a golfer? “Horrendous,” he said. “It’s like how I block shots – I don’t.” (He’s improved greatly since 1988.)

Other KW topics: Alex Curry interviews Nic Dowd, a Throwback Thursday recalling Jim Fox’s Legends Night, 50 Greatest Moments featuring the Kings’ first Stanley Cup Final win (and only SCF win prior to 2012), coverage from Monday’s golf tournament, and the most recent Black and White episode, featuring Marian Gaborik.

-I’ll have Darryl Sutter quotes up during the lunch hour, followed by a story on the team’s raised goals-for and goals-against rates. Bear with a delay in the afternoon; I got into a minor fender bender (I’m OK! So is the other party!) driving between TSC and In N Out two weeks ago and am picking my car up for repairs in the Valley before heading to Staples Center. Let’s talk soon, Insiders.

Photos, courtesy of Jon Bradley: