Game 4 Preview: Los Angeles vs Minnesota

Los Angeles Kings (0-3-0) vs Minnesota Wild (3-0-0)
Friday, October 16, 2015, 7:30 p.m. PT
Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
Referees: #40 Steve Kozari, #26 Rob Martell
Linesmen: #86 Brad Lazarowich, #58 Ryan Gibbons
FOX Sports West, KABC 790 AM, I Heart Radio

Los Angeles Projected Starting Goaltender – Jonathan Quick
2015-16: 3 GP (3 GS) / 0-3-0 record / 3.70 GAA / .861 Sv% / 0 SHO
Career vs Minnesota: 17 (17) / 9-5-3 / 2.46 / .901 / 0
Last Game vs Minnesota: 3/28/15 / 20 MP / 7-9 shots / 1-4 L
2015-16, Home: 3 (3) / 0-3-0 / 3.70 / .861 / 0

Minnesota Projected Starting Goaltender – Darcy Kuemper
2014-15: 31 GP (28 GS) / 14-12-2 record / 2.60 GAA / .905 Sv% / 3 SHO
Career vs Los Angeles: 3 (2) / 1-1-0 / 2.54 / .903 / 0*
Last Game vs Los Angeles: 11/26/14 / 20 MP / 6-10 shots / 0-4 L
2014-15, Away: 16 (14) / 6-8-1 / 2.45 / .919 / 1*
*First 2015-16 appearance; last year’s stats listed

2014-15 Los Angeles Leaders
Total Points: Five players tied with one
Goals: Nick Shore (1-0=1), Tyler Toffoli (1-0=1)
Assists: Dustin Brown (0-1=1), Drew Doughty (0-1=1), Jeff Carter (0-1=1)
Plus/Minus: Matt Greene (0; 0-0=0)
Penalty Minutes: Andy Andreoff (12; 0-0=0)
Time On Ice: Drew Doughty (27:51; 0-1=1)
Corsi-For Percentage: Nick Shore (69.0%; 1-0=1)

2014-15 Minnesota Leaders
Total Points: Zach Parise (5-1=6)
Goals: Zach Parise (5-1=6)
Assists: Ryan Suter (0-4=4), Jason Pominville (0-4=4)
Plus/Minus: Mikael Granlund (+4; 1-3=4), Jason Pominville (+4; 0-4=4), Marco Scandella (+4; 0-1=1)
Penalty Minutes: Jonas Brodin (6; 0-0=0)
Time On Ice: Ryan Suter (23:49; 0-4=4)
Corsi-For Percentage: Nate Prosser (64.3%; 0-0=0)

Rankings and Statistics
Goals/Game: LAK – 29 / 0.67; MIN – t-1 / 4.00
Goals Against/Game: LAK – 27 / 4.00; MIN – t-18 / 3.00
Power Play: LAK – t-28 / 0.0%; MIN – 6 / 30.0%
Penalty Kill: LAK – 10 / 86.7%; MIN – t-22 / 75.0%
Shots/Game: LAK – 25 / 25.3; MIN – t-27 / 24.3
Shots Against/Game: LAK – 24 / 26.7; MIN – t-20 / 27.7
Faceoffs: LAK – t-9 / 51.7%; MIN – t-17 / 49.5%
Save Percentage: LAK – 27 / .850; MIN – t-19 / .892
Corsi-For Percentage: LAK – 1 / 58.1%; MIN – t-8 / 53.2%

Los Angeles Projected Lineup

Marian Gaborik – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown
Milan Lucic – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli
Tanner Pearson – Nick Shore – Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford – Andy Andreoff – Jordan Nolan

Brayden McNabb – Drew Doughty
Jake Muzzin – Alec Martinez
Derek Forbort – Christian Ehrhoff

Jonathan Quick
Jhonas Enroth

Notes and milestones: Los Angeles is 24-16-13 all-time against Minnesota, a record that includes a home mark of 12-8-6. These teams will meet again on January 21 at Staples Center and March 22 at Xcel Energy Center. Six of the last 17 games between the teams have been decided in a shootout. … Los Angeles is 0-0-0 against the Central Division and 0-3-0 against the Western Conference. … With losses in their first three games, the Kings will need a win to avoid becoming the first team in franchise history to drop the first four games of the season. The last Kings team to start the season with no points over its first three games was the 1985-86 team, which won the fourth game of the season over the New York Rangers, but then lost five in a row and finished 23-49-8. That team lost the second game of the season to the New York Islanders in overtime, but did not receive any points for an overtime loss. The last Kings team to lose three straight in regulation to start a season was the 1969-70 team, which won its fourth and fifth games (over Oakland and Pittsburgh), but finished 14-52-10. … By playing tonight, Dustin Brown will have appeared in his 806th game as a King, moving past Rob Blake for sole possession of fourth place on the franchise’s all-time games played list. … With 30 power play goals, Drew Doughty is one power play goal behind Lubomir Visnovsky (31) for the third most power play goals amongst defensemen in club history. … With 547 career wins, Darryl Sutter is two wins behind Marc Crawford (549) for 14th overall in NHL history. … Marian Gaborik is Minnesota’s all-time leader in goals (219), plus-minus (plus-54), power play goals (59), game-winning goals (43) and shots (1,694). He ranks second in Wild history with 437 points. He has three points (1-2=3) and a plus-four rating in seven career games against his former team.

Minnesota Projected Lineup

Zach Parise – Mikael Granlund – Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker – Mikko Koivu – Nino Niederreiter
Thomas Vanek – Charlie Coyle – Justin Fontaine
Chris Porter – Erik Haula – Ryan Carter

Ryan Suter – Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin – Matt Dumba
Marco Scandella – Christian Folin

Darcy Kuemper
Devan Dubnyk

Notes and milestones: Minnesota enters play Friday as one of four undefeated NHL teams (Montreal, Detroit and San Jose are the others). … Zach Parise (5-1=6) has goals in all three Wild games this season. … Thomas Vanek scored the 300th goal of his career Thursday night in a 4-3 win at Arizona. … Mikko Koivu has 27 points (7-20=27) in 30 career games against Los Angeles. … There are 12 players on Minnesota’s roster who are 25-or-younger (Brodin, Coyle, Dumba, Folin, Granlund, Graovac, Haula, Kuemper, Niederreiter, Scandella, Spurgeon, Zucker). … The Wild have won five straight second nights of back-to-back sets and have 14 wins in their last 15 road games, both dating back to last season. Last year, Minnesota set franchise records for road wins (24) and road points (50) in a season. … Darcy Kuemper appeared in eight games for the ECHL’s Ontario Reign in 2011-12, going 7-1-0 with a 1.74 goals-against average and .941 save percentage.