As the band behind the San Jose Sharks' new goal song, Green Day, once sang, "Do you know your enemy? Gotta know the enemy." As a result, this season we'll take a look at the Sharks' enemies heading into each game day.
For their second game of the season, the Sharks are going to host the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. The Kings have played just one game, which was against a major powerhouse, the Colorado Avalanche.
The general story of that game was special teams, both of which were abysmal for Los Angeles. The Kings had four power play opportunities and failed to score with the man advantage. Their penalty kill was just as rough, as they allowed goals on four of Colorado's five power plays. The Sharks on the other hand, conceded just one goal on the penalty kill despite Florida having the man advantage on six occasions and scored on one of their four power play opportunities. The Sharks have a clear advantage in regards to special teams, although in a miniscule sample size.
The Kings had four different goal-scorers in their 8-4 loss to Colorado. Joel Armia, Trevor Moore, Artemi Panarin, and Brian Duomoulin each found the back of the net in their opening game. Meanwhile, their points leader is Alex Laferriere who had two assists on the evening.
Given their poor performance on opening night, there's a chance that the Kings' new bench boss Peter Laviolette will bring one of their healthy scratches, Corey Perry or Erik Gustafsson into the mix on Saturday night. Kevin Fiala, who was injured at last year's Olympic Games, remains on the injured reserve for the Kings.
Darcy Kuemper is the only goaltender to play between the pipes so far this season for Los Angeles, registering a .724 save percentage and allowing eight goals in his season debut.
One area where the Kings were very successful in their opening matchup was in the faceoff circle. The Kings won 63.8% of their faceoffs against Colorado. For reference, the Sharks' only won 42.6% of draws against the Panthers.
Kings Lines in Previous Game Per Zach Dooley:
Panarin - Byfield - Kempe
Zuccarello - Turcotte - Laferriere
Moore - Laughton - Haula
Lee - Helenius - Armia
Dumoulin - Doughty
Edmundson - Clarke
Anderson - Ceci
Kuemper
Forsberg
So far, it seems like the Sharks have the advantage in quite a few regards heading into this game, but with this small of a sample size, anything can happen. The Sharks need to stay out of the penalty box, as they can't afford to keep playing almost a full period a man short. The Kings have some high-end talent, but the Sharks' top-line is just as good and with Macklin Celebrini, they have the best player on the ice.
