Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Championship Sunday
The Los Angeles Kings (27-17-6, 60 points 3rd Pacific) play the fourth game of a five game road trip on Friday when paying a visit to FLA Live Arena to play the Florida Panthers (23-21-6, 52 points, 5th Atlantic) in Sunrise, Florida. Los Angeles defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 on Tuesday night for their second victory. Florida was defeated by the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-6 in overtime on Tuesday and has lost two straight. Los Angeles will play without Jacob Ingham, Arthur Kaliyev, Trevor Moore and Gabriel Vilardi. Florida will play without Anthony Duclair, Patric Hornqvist and Eric Staal, while Sam Bennett and Sergei Bobrovsky are questionable.
The Los Angeles Kings are allowing an average of 3.38 goals per game which is 22nd in the NHL. Los Angeles is holding opponents to an average of 28.4 shots per game which is fifth best, while the Kings are just 27th in penalty kill success, at 73.5%. Phoenix Copley is 14-3-0 with a 2.80 goals against average .897 save percentage. Copley is seeing more action in goal than veteran Jonathan Quick, who is 9-11-4 with a 3.34 goals against average and .884 save percentage.
Los Angeles is scoring an average of 3.18 goals per game which is 17th in the NHL. The Kings are averaging 32.5 shots per game which is 11th best and Los Angeles has the 10th best power play, scoring 24.4% of the time with the man advantage. Adrian Kempe is the leading goal scorer for Los Angeles with 19, while Kevin Fiala and Gabriel Vilardi (out injured) h ave each scored 17. Fiala is the leader in assists with 34 and Anze Kopitar is second with 25. Fiala is the points leader with 51 and Kopitar is a distant second with 39. Los Angeles has scored 42 goals on the power play in 50 games.