Pre-Game Report: Kings v. Oilers

This will be quick.

I missed Saturday's 5-2 loss to the Avs but RudyKelly has a pretty good post-game report. Bottom line: Ryan Smyth should die. Thanks to "Captain Canada", oh wait, no it's "Mr. I hate Canada and NY but I'll give Colorado a try because the weather is so similar to Edmonton it'll be like I'm still in Canada and can be called Captain Canada but really, I can't so....whatevs", but thanks to him Barbs is out. Who knows how serious the injury is. The LA Times reports:

LaBarbera suffered a rib injury with 14 minutes 40 seconds remaining in the third period when he was hit by the Avalanche's Ryan Smyth during a scramble near the net. LaBarbera was forced to leave and his return is uncertain.

Additionally, the LAT reports that Jonathan Quick has been called up from Manchester on an emergency basis. What? No Cloots? Ahhh, is that 3-8 record unappealing? Matt Moulson has been sent back down but hometown boy, Gabe Gauthier, has been called up. Gauthier is 2nd in scoring for the Monarchs with 27 points (8G, 19A) in 21 games. Last season Gauthier played a couple games with the Kings. I didn't think he was anything special but a new season, a new kid? Let's hope so because we need the scoring.

Fro has been placed on IR. Faaaaaantastic. Cammy played in Saturday's game (19:59 TOI) but was held scoreless and was a -3. The top line will need to step it up because the Oil are on a roll after having won 4 of their last 5 games including two consecutive wins against the Ducks, outscoring them 9-1 in the home-and-home series (thanks, Giguere, I only have you in two of my fantasy leagues.)

The first meeting between these two teams was at Staples Center in late October. The Oil got on the board first but the Kings pulled through and scored 4 unanswered goals. (Funny thing, the box score shows Raffi Torres scoring a goal, but he didn't.) Patty O'Sullivan had a heck of a game as did Barbs (*sniff, sniff* poor Barbs).

Keys to the game:

Stay out of the box (which they have been doing well lately) and kill off penalties (which they struggle at).

The Kings have been sucking on the power play lately and that needs to change, stat.

Keep up the energy. There haven't been many games this season where I feel like the Kings have kept up the energy throughout the entire game.

Don't blow another lead. I'm sick and tired of the Kings going up by one or two goals and then floundering the lead. Utter carnival trash. I'm way more at ease when the Kings are down early in the game because I'm more confident that they'll come back rather than protect a lead.