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Los Angeles Kings (12-18-2) 26pts 5th Pacific
2.75 Goals For / per game (14th in the NHL)
3.28 Goals Against / per game (29th in the NHL)
8th ranked Power Play (20.8%)
28th ranked Penalty Kill (77.2%)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Anze Kopitar ~ 15G 17A = 32pts
2. #13 Mike Cammalleri ~ 14G 13A = 27pts
3. #23 Dustin Brown ~ 14G 13A = 27pts
4. #24 Alexander Frolov ~ 4G 16A = 20pts
5. #17 Lubomir Visnovsky ~ 1G 18A = 19pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #4 Rob Blake ~ 60 PIM’s
2. #6 Brad Stuart ~ 45 PIM’s
3. #7 Derek Armstrong ~ 37 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #35 Jason LaBarbera (6-9-1)Â 2.56GAAÂ .916%SP
2. #37 Jean-Sebastien Aubin (4-4-1)Â 3.42GAAÂ .884%SP
3. #32 Jonathan Quick (1-2-0)Â 3.86GAAÂ .855%SP
4. #41 Jonathan Bernier (1-3-0)Â 4.03GAAÂ .864%SP
Vs.
Minnesota Wild (17-12-2) 36pts 2nd Northwest
2.52 Goals For / per game (24th in the NHL)
2.52 Goals Against / per game (9th in the NHL)
13th ranked Power Play (19%)
15th ranked Penalty Kill (82.2%)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #10 Marian Gaborik ~ 11G 14A = 25pts
2. #12 Brian Rolston ~ 10G 13A = 23pts
3. #96 Pierre-Marc Bouchard ~ 5G 16A = 21pts
4. #25 Eric Belanger ~ 7G 12A = 19pts
5. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 5G 11A = 16pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #17 Todd Fedoruk ~ 61 PIM’s
2. #24 Derek Boogaard ~ 52 PIM’s
3. #34 Aaron Voros ~ 51 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #32 Niklas Backstrom (13-6-1)Â 2.29GAAÂ .915%SP
2. #29 Josh Harding (4-6-1)Â 2.83GAAÂ .909%SP
It is a classic trap game for the Minnesota Wild tonight as they faceoff against the Los Angeles Kings. Coming off a solid 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks last night, the Wild’s 2nd road victory over Anaheim this season the Wild found some of the confidence yesterday that has seemed so fleeting lately. Another area of the Wild’s game that had a resurgence last night, was the team’s effort which had been questionable the last few games. Can the Wild keep up that solid effort tonight against one of the league’s worst teams?
Sometimes, the best test for a good team is to have them follow up great games with another good performance against a team they should dominate. The motivation to play well is easy against good teams because you feel you have something to prove, and in contrast it is tough to maintain your focus when you’re playing a team you likely feel you’re significantly better than. That will be the primary challenge for the Wild tonight. Wild fans have become tiresome of the roller coaster-like play of the Wild where they seem to follow up good performances with poor ones.
Los Angeles is a young team, that is relatively inexperienced but they have a potent 1st line of talented sophomore centreman Anze Kopitar, talented sniper Mike Cammalleri, and gritty but skilled Dustin Brown. Led by former Canucks Head Coach Marc Crawford the Kings play an up tempo game, that has an element of grit as well. If the Wild wish to win, they will have to give a full 60-minute effort. The Kings have demonstrated in the past that leads are not safe, just ask the Dallas Stars to testify how resilient this team can be. The Kings’ biggest weakness is between the pipes. Jean-Sebastien Aubin is the team’s most experienced netminder, but he’s spent most of his career moving up and down from the AHL. This means the Wild might be able to score early and often, yet the Kings are one of the better scoring teams in the NHL. Their power play is very effective, so staying out of the penalty box will help the Wild’s chances at coming away with 2 points in this game.
Minnesota demonstrated some effectiveness on the power play last night that really had been missing for a while, scoring 4 times with the man advantage. The Kings’ penalty kill is among the league’s worst, so hopefully it can follow up with another strong performance on the power play. The Wild normally pride themselves on preventing teams from scoring, but tonight might be a night where the State of Hockey takes efforts to try to light the lamp more often as just lying in wait for a high powered offense to score is a recipe for disaster. The last time the two teams met, the Wild gave a poor effort and lost as the Kings were more physical than the Wild. Now, with Todd Fedoruk and Aaron Voros in the lineup the Wild have demonstrated much greater toughness and possesses more grit than it has the past few seasons. Hopefully the Wild will make full use of this tonight.
As for those of you who like the pugilistic aspect of the game, the Kings do have a few options to drop the gloves. The most common fighter is their big Latvian goon Raitis Ivanans, but defenseman Brad Stuart has also been known to drop the gloves as well. Scott Thornton is another possibility. Meanwhile, the Wild have Derek Boogaard back in the lineup, and has fought Ivanans in the past. Fedoruk is probably the most likely secondary fighter in the Wild’s lineup as Aaron Voros is mending a broken nose he suffered from a high hit delivered by San Jose’s Kyle McLaren and it is unlikely he would really want to fight unless he absolutely had to. Don’t fear Wild fans, he had this broken nose last night too, and played a very gritty game as well as netting a goal an assist; so he’s still bringing his game despite the injury.
An old saying goes, “its not how you start, but its how you finish,” and the Wild really need to think along those lines tonight.  The Wild had an ugly start to this road trip, but it could really gain some momentum with a strong performance tonight that would hopefully yield a win. Minnesota is currently sitting in 2nd, in another incredibly tight Northwest Division battle so every point gained is amplified in terms of importance. A win tonight would not only help the Wild maintain its position in the division but perhaps even more important give the team some much needed confidence when it returns for a 3-game homestand.
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 1:26 pm and is filed under 2007-08 Game Reports & Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Source: Minnesota Wild vs. Los Angeles Kings (GAME PREVIEW) 12-15-07 @ 9:30PM CST at Staples Center
