The LA Kings are in Florida, taking on the Panthers, as they look to avoid losing 4 straight games.
The LA Kings need a win after dropping their last 3 games. The Kings are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars, and their last win was on December 8th against the Utah Mammoth. The Panthers are coming off a 5-2 win over their rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Florida is looking to extend its winning streak to 3 games tonight against the Kings.
Projected Kings Lines
Here are the projected lines for the Kings:
Alex Laferriere - Anze Kopitar - Adrian Kempe
Kevin Fiala - Quinton Byfield - Joel Armia
Warren Foegele - Alex Turcotte - Trevor Moore
Andrei Kuzmenko - Jeff Mallott - Corey Perry
Mikey Anderson - Drew Doughty
Joel Edmundson - Brandt Clarke
Brian Dumoulin - Cody Ceci
Anton Forsberg
Pheonix Copley
Projected Panthers Lines
Here are the projected lines for the Panthers:
Eetu Luostarinen - Anton Lundell - Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe - Sam Bennett - Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer - Evan Rodrigues - Mackie Samoskevich
Jesper Boqvist - Luke Kunin - Noah Gregor
Gustav Forsling - Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola - Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis - Jeff Petry
Daniil Tarasov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Line Changes and Injuries
The Kings will be without Darcy Kuemper after he sustained an upper-body injury in the Dallas Stars game, and they will also be without Phillip Danault due to illness. The Kings are starting Anton Forsberg with Pheonix Copley as the backup due to Kuemper's injury. The Panthers will still be without Aleksander Barkov (knee), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Jonah Gadjovich (upper body), Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder), and Cole Schwindt (arm). The Panthers also elected to start Daniil Tarasov after Bobrovsky started the last 2 games.
Key Factors
The Kings will be looking at their top forwards tonight, as their offence has struggled during this losing streak. Adrian Kempe is still putting up good numbers, as he has 5 points in his last 5 games. Kevin Fiala has remained consistent for the Kings; in his last 5 games, he has 4 points. But the Kings need Quinton Byfield to step up, as he has 0 points in his last 6 games. Defensively, the Kings will also have to be strong, especially without Darcy Kuemper, who has been very solid.
The Panthers have been good recently as well, and the Kings will have to watch out for Brad Marchand as he leads the Panthers with 35 points this season. On the backend for Florida, the Kings will have to be aware of Seth Jones and his ability to help produce offence for the Panthers, as he has 5 goals and 19 points on the year.