Kings look to avenge loss to Islanders
The Kings will have a shot at not only two critical points tonight but also to get vengeance against the New York Islanders and their captain, Anders Lee, when they host the Islanders at Crypto.com Arena.
Lee and his colleagues won a 3-2 thriller on Long Island that saw the captain score two third-period goals to send the match to overtime and also make two highly questionable plays on Kings players. He appeared to slew foot Arthur Kaliyev, after which the Uzbek-American winger was confounded by the non-call. Lee made a knee-on-knee hit that injured defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, which did not result in a penalty, either.
That Dec. 9 game was the Kings' first road loss of the season after winning a record 11 straight away games to kick off the campaign. Gavrikov, who attempted to play the following night at Madison Square Garden and then missed the next five games, has not been quite the same player since. The defeat was the first of three straight for the Kings and a harbinger of a calamitous stretch that saw them drop 14 of 16 games.
Gavrikov, Andreas Englund and Jacob Moverare have been manning the left side of the Kings' defense lately, and have each experienced difficulty and shown reluctance transporting the puck, exacerbating the Kings' struggles on zone exits. That while the organization's top prospect, rightshooting
The Kings and defenseman Jacob Moverare host the Islanders tonight.
UP NEXT
Today: Islanders at Kings, 7:30 p.m., BSW
Brandt Clarke, has largely languished, either on the bench or, as was the case Saturday against Dallas, in the press box. The imminent return of the Kings' most mobile left defender, Mikey Anderson, should help in that regard, with forward Adrian Kempe enriching their speed and fluidity with his return against Dallas on Saturday.
Kempe's comeback hardly energized a group that fell 4-1 to a formidable Dallas Stars squad that had already beaten the Kings 5-1 near the outset of the campaign.
Now the Kings, who didn't practice Sunday, will have to contend with Lee, leading scorer Mathew Barzal, blueline savant Noah Dobson, former divisional foe Bo Horvat and 2023 Vezina Trophy finalist Ilya Sorokin. The Islanders have won five straight games and have vaulted themselves into the wild-card race under legendary goalie Patrick Roy, who took over as head coach in January.
“They play a similar game to Dallas, they're a big, strong team,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said. “They're a desperate team, right? They're fighting for the playoffs, so we're going to see their best, and they better see our best because it's going to be a playoffstyle game, and we should be just as desperate as they are.”
Against two Stanley contenders on this season-long homestand, the Kings have mustered just two goals. Though they went 0-for-4 on the power play against Dallas, they had just one man-advantage opportunity across their previous two games, going 0-for-1 against the Vancouver Canucks and not drawing a single penalty in an overtime win over the lastplace Ottawa Senators.
“That's generally a place where most teams, us included, can create some offense,” Hiller said. “When we create offense, where we have the puck and you're dangerous, you just feel better. We didn't do that at all on our power play tonight, so we had nothing to feel good about.”
WESTERN CONFERENCE
PACIFIC DIVISION
Vancouver Edmonton Kings Vegas Seattle Calgary Ducks
San Jose
CENTRAL DIVISION
Dallas Winnipeg Colorado Nashville Minnesota St. Louis Arizona Chicago
GP W
66 63 63 64 63 64 64 63
GP W
66 63 65 66 65 64 65 65 42 39 32 34 28 31 23 16 40 40 40 37 31 32 26 17
L OT Pts GF GA
17 21 20 23 24 28 38 40 7 3 11 7 11 5 3 7 91 234 178 81 222 180 75 194 171 75 207 191 67 174 179 67 200 206 49 167 229 39 139 250
L OT Pts GF GA
17 18 20 25 27 29 34 43 9 5 5 4 7 3 5 5
EASTERN CONFERENCE
ATLANTIC DIVISION
Florida Boston Toronto Tampa Bay Detroit Buffalo Montreal Ottawa
METROPOLITAN DIVISION
N.Y. Rangers Carolina Philadelphia N.Y. Islanders Washington New Jersey Pittsburgh Columbus
GP W
65 66 64 65 64 65 64 62
GP W
63 64 65 63 62 64 63 64
Sunday's results
L OT Pts GF GA
N.Y. Islanders 6, Ducks 1 Edmonton 4, Pittsburgh 0 Minnesota 4, Nashville 3, OT Carolina 7, Calgary 2 Chicago 7, Arizona 4
Today's games
44 38 37 34 33 30 24 25 41 39 33 29 30 31 28 22 89 242 199 85 193 153 85 241 197 78 211 201 69 204 215 67 179 199 57 192 218 39 138 233
L OT Pts GF GA
17 13 19 25 25 30 30 33 18 19 24 20 23 29 27 32
4 15 8 6 6 5 10 4 4 6 8 14 9 4 8 10 92 217 153 91 222 179 82 231 201 74 224 219 72 221 211 65 189 195 58 180 229 54 200 220 86 210 172 84 216 177 74 192 194 72 197 206 69 170 194 66 211 224 64 180 184 54 192 232
New Jersey at N.Y. Rangers, 4 p.m. St. Louis at Boston, 4 p.m. Washington at Winnipeg, 4:30 p.m. N.Y. Islanders at Kings, 7:30 p.m.
LEADERS
Through Saturday
GOAL SCORING
Name
Auston Matthews Sam Reinhart Zach Hyman N. MacKinnon David Pastrnak Nikita Kucherov Brock Boeser J. Marchessault Artemi Panarin William Nylander Filip Forsberg Brayden Point Sidney Crosby Leon Draisaitl Chris Kreider
J.T. Miller
Elias Pettersson Mikko Rantanen Kirill Kaprizov Carter Verhaeghe
ASSISTS
Name
Connor McDavid EDM N. MacKinnon COL Nikita Kucherov TBL Quinn Hughes VAN Noah Dobson NYI Cale Makar COL J.T. Miller VAN David Pastrnak BOS Mikko Rantanen COL Victor Hedman TBL Artemi Panarin NYR Mitchell Marner TOR Matthew Tkachuk FLA Leon Draisaitl EDM William Nylander TOR Robert Thomas STL Elias Pettersson VAN Aleksander BarkovFLA Roman Josi NAS Mathew Barzal NYI
PLUS/MINUS
Name
Team
TOR FLA EDM COL BOS TBL VAN VGK NYR TOR NAS TBL PIT EDM NYR VAN VAN COL MIN FLA
Team
Team
Gustav Forsling FLA Quinn Hughes VAN Filip Hronek VAN Dylan DeMelo WPG J.T. Miller VAN Mattias Ekholm EDM Aleksander Barkov FLA Aaron Ekblad FLA Connor McDavid EDM