Time to see who celebrated too much over the brief holiday break. The San Jose Sharks are in Southern California this evening for a quick game against the Los Angeles Kings. This is the second of four meetings between the two teams. The last time they met was Dec. 19 at SAP Center when the Kings won 4-1.
LA is maintaining its hold on third place in the Pacific Division, though its ranking is a little deceiving. For one thing, LA is five points behind the Vegas Golden Knights and six points behind the Vancouver Canucks, but the Kings have five games in hand on both of the division leaders. That ground could disappear quickly.
The Kings went into the break with a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Flames. LA is hoping to turn that into a winning streak since the team has gone 5-4-1 in the last ten games and will need to pick up the pace to keep up in the Pacific Division race.
Anze Kopitar leads the Kings with 31 points in 30 games. Trevor Moore has the most goals for LA with 16. Cam Talbot continues to hold the net, with 14 wins in 22 games. However, David Rittich was the goaltender credited with the Dec. 19 win over San Jose, so either goalie will make for a touch matchup tonight.
Look for the Sharks to try to match the Kings’ defensive style of play tonight. San Jose didn’t do a good job of it the last time these two teams met, leading to some harsh words from Head Coach David Quinn. I believe the phrase “men amongst boys” was used when comparing the Kings players to the Sharks. There’s a bit of pride on the line tonight. Los Angeles is still the best defensive team in the league, averaging 2.4 goals against per game. That 86.6% penalty kill is also the best in the league.
San Jose Sharks lines in Los Angeles
San Jose will be without the lone player that scored in that game against LA. Jacob MacDonald is the newest player added to the injured reserve list. The move maintains San Jose’s league lead in man games lost due to injury. According the blog NHL Injury Viz, the Sharks have lost 178 games to injury this season. That’s well over the second team on the list, Vegas, which has lost 125 games due to injury.
Additionally, San Jose will be without goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who is ill. According to the Sharks, Magnus Chrona was called up from the Barracuda to backup Kaapo Kahkonen.
While MacDonald and Blackwood are out, the Sharks should get a few players back as well. Alexander Barabanov and Calen Addison are expected to return to the lineup. According to NHL.com, here’s what the lines will look like.
Forwards
William Eklund – Tomas Hertl – Filip Zadina
Anthony Duclair – Mikael Granlund – Fabian Zetterlund
Mike Hoffman – Luke Kunin – Alexander Barabanov
Kevin Labanc – Jack Studnicka – Justin Bailey
Defensemen
Mario Ferraro – Kyle Burroughs
Nikita Okhotiuk – Jan Rutta
Calen Addison – Henry Thrun
Goaltenders
Kaapo Kahkonen
Magnus Chrona
Los Angeles Kings projected lineup
Here’s the projected lineup for the Kings tonight, courtesy of NHL.com.
Forwards
Quinton Byfield – Anze Kopitar – Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore – Phillip Danault – Kevin Fiala
Alex Laferriere – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Arthur Kaliyev
Carl Grundstrom – Blake Lizotte – Trevor Lewis
Defensemen
Mikey Anderson – Drew Doughty
Vladislav Gavrikov – Matt Roy
Andreas Englund – Jordan Spence
Goaltenders
David Rittich
Cam Talbot
How to watch the San Jose Sharks at Los Angeles Kings on Dec. 27, 2023
Tonight’s game starts at 7 p.m. PT, 10 p.m. ET at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles (formerly the Staples Center).
Sharks fans can watch the game on NBCSCA or listen through the Sharks Audio Network app. Meanwhile, Kings fans can watch the game on BSW.
Check back at 7 p.m. to join the community and follow along with all of the play-by-play action in the comment section below!
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