Game Preview: Los Angeles Kings @ Pittsburgh Penguins 10/20/2022 – Lines, how to watch

Who: Los Angeles Kings (3-2-0, 3rd place in the Pacific Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (2-0-1, 4th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7:00 p.m. East

how to watch: AT&T Sportsnet in Pittsburgh, ESPN+ elsewhere (Bally Sports West for away team coverage)

enemy track: The Kings come to town on a three-game winning streak. It was an odd start for them: LA started the season with two home games and lost both. Then they took to the streets and won all three of those games. The last two games – in Detroit on Monday (OT) and in Nashville on Tuesday (SO) – took place in overtime.

On Monday, LA won “shoulda, coulda” in regulation, but Viktor Arvidsson “Patrik Stefan’d‘ an empty net and Detroit would tie the game – only to watch the Kings win in OT anyway. On Tuesday, LA went into the third period two goals down on the Preds but dug out of the hole with two goals from the same player, and a highly unlikely source in Matt Roy. Roy only scored twice in 67 games all of last season! Eventually, LA pulled out the shootout victory. So, yes, a very strange start for them so far. After today, the Kings end their fifth and final game of the current road trip in Washington.

Pins way ahead: The Pens are about to set off on their own for a five-game trip that begins Saturday in Columbus. After that, the team forges some bonding early in the season by heading west to back-to-back games in Calgary and Edmonton the next Mon+Tue, getting a few days off, and then seeing Vancouver and Seattle the next Fri+Sat.

season series: The second and final game of the PIT/LA season series takes place on February 11th in sunny Los Angeles. After a cold week in western PA, as the cool temperatures of fall are just setting in, a trip to southern California in the middle of winter is something to envy.

meet kings

Possible lines

FORWARD

Adrian Kempe – Anze Kopitar – Kevin Fiala

Trevor Moore – Philip Danault – Viktor Arvidsson

Carl Grundstrom, Quinton Byfield, and Gabriel Vilardi

Brendan Lemieux, Blake Lizotte, Arthur Kaliyev

DEFENDER

Michael Anderson / Drew Doughty

Sean Durzi / Matt Roy

Brandt Clarke/Sean Walker

Goalkeeper: Jonathan Quick or Cal Petersen

Scratch: Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Alex Edler (injured), Jacob Moverare

IR: Alex Jafallo

– It was a tough break for Iafallo to get injured. He played that third row with a couple of former first-round picks the Kings have high hopes for (Byfield and Valardi) and has played well this season with five points in four games. A Penguin fan might also recall that Iafallo scored against Pittsburgh last year and had three points (1G+2A) in two games against the Pens in 2021-22.

– This is a very young Kings team overall, Kopitar and Doughty will be the only skaters in the lineup over 30 tonight. Clarke was the ninth overall pick in 2021 and has made his NHL debut this season. Byfield was the second pick in the 2020 draft not long ago. Others like Anderson, Durzi, Kaliyev, and Vilardi are barely old enough to buy a beer but play quite a large role on the team.

statistics

via hockeydb

– There was talk outside of how LA would deal with a trio of former first-round picks after that training camp. Gabe Vilardi, Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Lias Andersson all now require waivers to go to the AHL, none have been set yet. The Kings decided to play one (Vilardi) and he’s off to a great start this season and could finally make it to be the 11th pick in what is now his fourth season crack in the NHL. Dolan is the 13th/14th Remaining forward who didn’t play, Andersson (the former No. 7 overall at Rangers in 2017) was waived, erased, and is in the AHL.

– Did you know that Drew Doughty is 32 and will be 33 in December? I would have guessed he’s 35 or 36+ now, feels like he’s been around forever.

—Arvidsson scored 20G+29A in 66 games for the Kings last year, but does signing a player like Fiala hurt the chances of someone like Arvidsson? Arvidsson’s average total playing time hasn’t dropped, but he’s the fifth-highest forward in power play TOI so far this season (he was fourth last year). Fiala has had a great start to the season and is a positive addition to the team, but it’s always interesting to see how some of the unanticipated trickle-down effects come about after a frontline player is added and how it knocks down the other players on the team .

– Another weird and random stat: Yesterday morning when I ran this, LA leads the NHL with 5.2 power plays per game so far in this young season. They averaged 7:55 per game on the power play, which feels absurdly high. Los Angeles’ games this season have not been lacking in drama or excitement so far.

And now for the pens…

Projected Lines

Forward

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell

Jason Zucker Evgeni Malkin Bryan Rust

Danton Heinen – Jeff Carter – Kasperi Kapanen

Brock McGinn, Ryan Poehling, Josh Archibald

defense

Brian Dumoulin / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Jeff Petry

Pierre Olivier Joseph / Jan Rutta

Goalkeeper: Tristan Jarry Casey DeSmith

Scratch: Teddy Blueger (everyday injuries), Chad Ruhwedel

– No changes in practice yesterday for the pens who had a day off on Tuesday after arriving 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning back from the Montreal game (love this twitter account).

– No change isn’t the best as Blueger still wears a non-contact jersey. He’s not officially ruled out for today, but Mike Sullivan “wouldn’t count‘ that Blueger can play tonight, which is about as concrete as he’ll be about a lineup statement. Blueger has been running line rushes with added defenseman Chad Ruhwedel, so all signs are pointing to a fourth straight missed game for the center.

player corner

In just five games this year, the Kings have scored a total of 41 goals (20 by them, 21 by opponents). That’s a whopping 8.2 goals/game. Pittsburgh themselves have 7.0 goals/game. After an uninspired effort in the last game, I’m looking to the Pens to get some coaching and fire up at home tonight and LA to keep the wide-open game going at both ends of the ice.

• $10 if over 6.5 goals in play (-120 to pay $18.33)

Season Tips: 4-2, +0.591 units