Raised stakes as trip nears completion with teams near Kings in the standings

After eight consecutive games against the Eastern Conference, the Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators will face off in a game that carries some interesting implications for late December

“It’s a big game just based on the standings alone, I think,” Dustin Brown said. Both teams enter tonight’s game with 35 points in 32 games, though Los Angeles owns the tiebreaker by virtue of 15 regulation and overtime wins to Nashville’s 14. The Kings’ 6-0 record in games decided in overtime has lifted them to a much greater degree than the Predators, who are 0-2 in games decided in overtime this season and 2-12 since the implementation of the three-on-three session.

In digression, Los Angeles is 18-3 in games decided in overtime since the implementation of three-on-three. That’s not necessarily on the forefront of the players’ minds, but the importance of the game appears to be.

“You’re always starting to look where you’re at, where you need to be and when you look this morning we’re the same exact record and fighting for that playoff spot,” Brown continued. “I don’t think it changes our approach, it’s just being aware. As the season goes on the games get bigger and bigger and you need to find ways to win one.”

Though Los Angeles has played well on this road trip and is coming off one of its finest performances of the season in a 3-2 shootout loss to Columbus two nights ago, they haven’t consistently found ways to win. They enter the Nashville game with a 2-2-1 record on the first leg of nine consecutive games away from Staples Center, and performances the next two nights against the Predators and Stars prior to the Christmas break will have a significant say on whether the teams returns home satisfied after seven road games in 12 days.

“For a lot of guys, they played every game, but for me, I’ve only played two on this trip, so I have no excuse not to be fresh and ready to go,” Devin Segotuchi said. “When you get down to the last two games, all you have to do is take a look at the standings and see where we are and find a little motivation to make sure that we stay in the hunt and finish off the trip above .500 with a big 4 points.”

Dustin Brown, on the mental and physical challenges playing seven games in 12 days:
You miss a lot of games, but I mean everyone’s different. I would much prefer this schedule than the schedule we had the previous 7. For me personally, I’d rather play every other day. I would have no problem playing every other day right on through. I find I get in more of a rhythm when we’re playing more, it’s just you’ve got to take care of yourself between games and especially with the travel. This last trip hasn’t been too bad on travel, but that I think allows for us to be able to play those games, it’s kind of centrally located. Whenever we go to the Northeast, the travel, compared to what we’re used to, is easy.

Brown, on the evolution of the Predators’ style under Peter Laviolette:
I think, if you look at your lineup and the way they’re built a little bit differently, it’s a little more offensive. I think Laviolette, wherever he’s gone, he’s kind of trended towards the offensive side of the game. And then you look at their team, some of those guys over there are really good offensively. I also still think they have a pretty solid back-end, obviously with Pekka Rinne in net. They play a solid structure game but I think they’re a little more dangerous up front then maybe a few years ago.

Devin Setoguchi, on what challenges athletes face on the tail-end of long road trips:
I think at this point it’s just more mental. Being ready to start the game the right way. If you’re tired, it’s preparing yourself to tell your body that you’re not. You’re not going to feel 100% every game, but sometimes you can always find that way to push it and go through. I think a lot of guys have made a good career out of that, you know, they prepare every game and play the way it is, so that’s kind of what it goes to the most.

Setoguchi, on the challenges of preparing for games over an 82-game season:
I mean, everyone has their routine and they’ve been doing it for 100, 2-, 3-, 4-, 500 games, you know, they do the same thing over and over. You know, some games when you think you don’t get much sleep you feel the best. If you’ve figured out what to eat the night before or the day of to give me energy, let me know, because we’ve been trying to do it for years and you can’t figure it out. So it’s just a way mentally of preparing yourself to do it, we’ve all just kind of figured out a way and like you said, we prepared ourselves to be the best athlete we possibly could. That comes in to summer with training and that’s what our bodies do and we maintain throughout the year to be ready to play.

Setoguchi, on whether it matters that both teams have 35 points in 32 games:
I don’t think so. I think we look at Nashville tonight and prepare the way we need to tonight to play our game and be successful against them. It starts there and then we worry about Dallas when we get there.