Swing Game!

The Kings will face a tough Flames team tomorrow afternoon. It is an important swing game for the Kings. Right now the Kings are 2 points ahead of the Flames but have played 3 more games. The Kings need to stay in 4th and prove that even without Smyth and possibly Scuderi, that they are a team to be taken seriously. With a win against the Flames the Kings would still be 3 games up on them but they would have 4 points rather than 2. If they lose to the Flames they will be tied but the Flames will have 3 games to help push them passed the Kings. Psychologically there is an important difference between these two positions.

Both teams are coming off losses, the Kings lost a nail biter 3-2 to the Flyers, where in the dying seconds the tying goal rolled inches wide of the goal line. Overall the Kings did not play a very strong game, and if it weren’t for a few brilliant saves by Quick the outcome could have been worse. On the other hand the goals that did go in made you wonder what Quick was thinking. Turnovers continue to be a problem for the Kings, and they missed out huge on a 5 on 3 powerplay earlier in the game. If they had of played the way they did in the last few minutes of the game as they did on that powerplay the game could have been completely different.

The Kings tried Frolov on the top line to replace the injured Smyth, but Frolov did not seem to do much out there and it brought his other line mates down with him. In my opinion Dustin Brown should be the one to replace Smyth there are more similarities in their styles that might help the transition of a new winger on the top line into the fold. Stoll could play with Parse and Simmonds, while Frolov could play where he seems most comfortable on Handzus’s wing. I would probably recall Moller to play on the other wing. However I wouldn’t count out the possibility of giving Loktionov his first crack at the NHL. If Scuderi returns I would probably sit Drewiske, and keep O’Donnell in, as it will likely be a tough game.

The Kings will need to have their A game ready to go. The Flames will look to bounce back after an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Blackhawks last night. The Kings will need to fend of the first few minutes of the Flames pressure, and get the lead going into the second period. That will knock the wind out of their sails. From there on in they will need to keep their composure (the Flames will try to draw some penalties), keep going hard to the net, and limit their turnovers. Do all that and they should be fine.

This is an easy part of the season for a team to become complacent. There is never a good time to do that. Losing tomorrow, and being tied in fourth with a team that has three games on you is very much worse than alone in third with the team chasing you 4 points behind with three games on you. The Kings need a win.

In my opinion this is a must win game against the Flames. Not only will it give them a leg up in the standings, it will give them some confidence that they can win games even when they don’t have key players in their line up, and it will tell the other teams, the fans and most importantly themselves that they belong as playoff team this season and hopefully for years to come.

Luton