Facing the best

Just got back from the morning skate…no lineup changes expected, with Peter Harrold and Randy Jones expected to be the scratches.

Looking to tonight, the Kings are going to have to overcome some recent history if they’re going to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. Since the lockout ended, the Kings are 0-2-1 against Pittsburgh. They lost 4-1 last season, 4-2 the season before and won 4-3 in overtime at Staples Center on Nov. 1, 2006.

The Kings have also had a tough go against defending Stanley Cup champions. They went 0-1 against Carolina in 2006-07, 2-4-2 against the Ducks in 2007-08 and 0-3-1 against Detroit last season. Here’s what Terry Murray said about facing the defending champions tonight…

MURRAY: “It’s not a measure-stick game for me. It’s another game, but it’s also another big game. When you’re playing the elite teams in the league, there’s always an extra push to see where it’s all at for your own team. So that’s significant, in and of itself. They’re playing extremely well, they’re the champions, and we’re going to have to bring our A game in order to play well against them. Looking back over the start of the year, the only game I look at and say we didn’t start properly would be opening night. All our other games, our first periods have been, in some cases, very good, in other cases good, and I feel that tonight we’re going to have to be right on top of it.”

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