Ryan Sikes 
The LA Kings will need to finish some offense against the league’s best defensive team in the Carolina Hurricanes.
After getting shutout on Wednesday, the LA Kings (8-6-2) will try to find some offense against the Carolina Hurricanes (13-2-0) on Saturday. The Canes are playing great hockey right now and carry an impressive 7-1-0 record in STAPLES Center.
One-Timers
- With Jonathan Quick going on Wednesday, Cal Petersen is probably a safe bet to start between the pipes on Saturday.
- Defenseman Sean Durzi was called up from the Ontario Reign on Friday, and there’s a great chance he makes his NHL debut against Carolina.
“Yeah we have [watched him a lot in the AHL], and Durz, this isn’t like we’re calling a guy up who hasn’t been around,” McLellan said. “He’s been around the locker room, he’s been around the team for a few years now, he’s comfortable. I really believe he’s comfortable around us, he’s not nervous, other than the fact that he might play his first game real soon. He’s not nervous walking into the locker room, being around Kopi and Brownie is an easy thing for him and he fit the practice really well today. He was excited, he had a little jump as he should, it was good.”
- Despite trading away goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic over the summer, the Hurricanes have been getting fantastic netminding from Frederik Andersen. He’s 10-2-0 with a 1.70 and .941 SV% on the season.
- Expect a shakeup of the lines on Saturday. Dustin Brown was skating on the third line the last two practices. Here’s how the lines looked, per LA Kings Insider.
Kempe – Kopitar – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Danault – Athanasiou
Moore – Kupari – Brown
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Andersson, Grundstrom
- McLellan spoke about moving Brown down in the lineup after Thursday’s practice:
“He’s 37 years old, he leads us in hits, he’s shot the puck and he’s played a hard, aggressive game, he’s doing a lot of the things. He’s provided leadership and he’s done the things that you ask of him, it’s just not going in for him right now. Brownie will be just fine where he goes, he just needs to pop one in the net and I think things will come for him.”
Puck Drop and Broadcast Info
- Saturday, November 20, 1 pm PT
- TV: Bally Sports West, Bally Sports South, ESPN+
Tale of the Tape
Powerplay
LAK: 17.9% (19th)
CAR: 24.1% (8th)
Penalty Kill
LAK: 75.6% (26th)
CAR: 87.1% (6th)
Faceoffs
LAK: 53.5% (7th)
CAR: 55.2% (1st)
Goals Per Game
LAK: 2.56 (25th)
CAR: 3.40 (6th)
Goals Against Per Game
LAK: 2.44 (6th)
CAR: 1.87 (1st)
Top Scorer
LAK: Anze Kopitar – 8 goals, 8 assists, 16 points
CAR: Andrei Svechnikov – 7 goals, 11 assists, 18 points
LA Kings: Military Encounter a Fine Example of Phillip Danault’s Character
We took the Canes best defense in the NHL to school tonight. We seemed have devoted the game plan to offense and cashed in with 4 goals. Just sorry our goaltending was not up to the task. There were a couple of shots I’d love to have back but IMHO this was Cal’s worst performance in while. He’s struggling and it showed.
Not Cal’s best game but Toby-Mikey pairing combined for a -8. Once Todd changed the pairings going into the third, it was much better.