Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Divisional Round
Two consecutive defeats on own ice take the Los Angeles Kings (3rd in Pacific Division) to the first contest of their upcoming six-game road trip, with the Nashville Predators (6th in Central) playing host on the back of an away defeat in St. Louis.
The Los Angeles Kings (25-16-6) ended their latest four-game homestand with a 2-2-0 record after earning their second straight setback (0-2-0) following a 4-0 shutout defeat against the Dallas Stars at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday. The Kings outshot the visitors 34-24 and killed all four of their penalties, but went 0-for-4 on power play and conceded three snipes in the opening frame before giving up one more in the following period, ultimately being blanked for the third time this season. With that, Los Angeles lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Oct. 20-22. The team is 10-4-1 in its most recent 15 fixtures.
Goalie Pheonix Copley (12-3-0 for the season with a 2.78 GAA and a .898 save percentage) allowed four goals on 17 shots in 27-and-a-half minutes of play on Thursday before being replaced by Jonathan Q uick (8-10-4 on the season with a 3.35 GAA and a .884 save percentage), who stopped all seven shots faced subsequently. Quick is 6-13-2 versus Nashville in past encounters with a 2.86 GAA and a .893 save percentage, while Copley has posted a 0-1-0 tally in two previous appearances against the Predators with a 5.68 GAA and a .771 save percentage. The Kings, meanwhile, are 14th in most goals scored per game this year (3.19), 10th in most goals conceded on average (3.40), 11th in power play (24.4%) and 5th from the bottom in penalty kill (73.6%).