Scouting the Ducks

The significance of tonight’s Kings-Ducks game hardly needs to be explained. The teams are tied with 68 points. The team that earns two points tonight will be in the Western Conference’s top eight. If it’s a regulation game, the loser will be in 11th place. This is the third of six meetings this season between the teams, with the Ducks winning 2-0 at Anaheim on Nov. 29 and the Kings winning 4-1 at Staples Center on Dec. 26. The Ducks today called up goalie Ray Emery from the AHL but are expected to give tonight’s start to Curtis McElhinney. The Ducks have followed a four-game winning streak with a three-game losing streak, and they enter the game with the league’s third-best power play (22.9 percent) and its 24th-ranked penalty-kill unit. Here’s how both teams are expected to line up tonight…

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DUCKS LINEUP
Bobby Ryan-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry
Jason Blake-Saku Koivu-Teemu Selanne
Jarkko Ruutu-Brandon McMillan-Dan Sexton
Maxim Lapierre-Todd Marchant-George Parros

Toni Lydman-Lubomir Visnovsky
Cam Fowler-Francois Beauchemin
Luca Sbisa-Andy Sutton

Curtis McElhinney

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KINGS LINEUP
Sturm-Kopitar-Simmonds
Smyth-Stoll-Brown
Richardson-Handzus-Williams
Clifford-Lewis-Westgarth

Mitchell-Doughty
Johnson-Scuderi
Drewiske-Greene

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