The Los Angeles Kings are in town as the Flyers continue their insanely difficult October run, this time against the defending champs.
With a win tonight, the Flyers would guarantee themselves at least 10 of 20 possible points in the month of October, which given the tough competition and the fact that they’ve lost two shootouts, wouldn’t really be the ugliest fate in the world.
That’s not going to be easy, though. The Kings are on the road for just the second time on the year tonight, and they come to Philadelphia winners of six straight. They’re mostly paced by the line of Tyler Toffoli, Tanner Pearson and a certain former Flyer, who as a unit are scoring two goals per game so far this season — more than some full teams are scoring per game.
Shutting those guys down is the key to victory for the Flyers, and we’ll expect Sean Couturier’s line to get the tough match ups there. Then after those guys you only have Anze Kopitar and Co. … so yeah, the Kings are dangerous and hard to contain. Luckily for Philadelphia, Kopitar might be out tonight with what seems to be a minor injury, but we’ll know more about that after the Kings take their morning skate around 11:30 a.m. Marian Gaborik and Trevor Lewis are out as well. Kings defenseman Slava Voynov is suspended indefinitely by the league as a domestic assault investigation carries on, and since he still counts against the salary cap right now, things are complicated should L.A. need to replace Kopitar in their lineup. Oh well, not our problem.
In goal, Ray Emery will get the start for the Flyers. He’s played extremely well of late, and this is likely going to cause talk of a “goalie controversy!!1” but really, it’s just sticking with the hot hand through a tough stretch of the schedule. Steve Mason will get his chance again before long, so don’t get too worked up over it. Emery’s been good and deserves to play. Jonathan Quick goes for the Kings.
On defense, will Shayne Gostisbehere get to see some more action? They seem hesitant to throw him into the fire further, even after he acquitted himself well against Detroit, but we’ll have to see what’s in the cards for him tonight. Lineup-wise, we don’t expect much different, aside from Zac Rinaldo’s return after a game off with an injury.
The Flyers are certainly going to need to clean up a ton of aspects of their game against Los Angeles, because a performance like they put in against Detroit will simply not fly against this team. Winning chances against this Kings team is extremely difficult, so it’s going to take a clean game and some opportunistic scoring to pull out the win tonight.
Los Angeles Kings at Philadelphia Flyers
7 p.m. ET | 4 p.m. PT
Wells Fargo Center | South Philadelphia
In Philly: CSN Philly, 97.5 The Fanatic, SiriusXM
In Los Angeles: FS West, AM 790 KABC, SiriusXM
Everywhere else: TVA (French in Canada), GameCenter Live
Get Los Angeles coverage over at Jewels From The Crown
