Sharks Open Five Game Road Trip vs Kings in Los Angeles…
Mar 14, 2013; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks center Logan Couture (39) takes a shot on goal during the second period of the game against the Los Angeles Kings at the HP Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
SAN JOSE SHARKS (12-8-6) at LOS ANGELES KINGS (14-10-2)
When: 7:30pm Saturday Night
Where: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
TV: CSN-California (All Northern California and Reno, NV area); Fox Sports West (All of Southern Califorina and Las Vegas, NV area); Centre Ice (Available only outside of California and Nevada)…
Radio: Sharks Radio Network (San Jose 98.5 FM, San Francisco 102.1 FM), check http://sharks.nhl.com/index.html for affilate stations outside of the Bay Area …
The San Jose Sharks begin a five game road trip tonight starting with a visit to their two Southern California rivals, Los Angeles and Anaheim. The first stop will be at the Staples Center for the second game of a home and home series against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Kings. The Sharks won the first game of the season between the two teams Thursday night as Logan Couture scored twice, Brent Burns had a goal and an assist as the Sharks held off a last minute furious rush from Los Angeles in a 4-3 win. After the visit to the Staples Center, the Sharks then travel 33 miles to the south to take on the arch rival Anaheim Ducks Monday Night (3/18). The road trip then continues Wednesday night (3/20) in Edmonton, (3/22) in Minnesota, and (3/25) back to Anaheim. The Sharks need to find a way to get some games in the win column as this road trip is the most important of the season and may very well determine whether or not the Sharks will be playing after April 27th.
Here is how NHL.com sees tonight match-up vs. the Los Angeles Kings**:
(by Matthew Mankiewich – NHL.com Staff Writer)
Season series: Second of four overall and the back end of a home-and-home that began Thursday night in HP Pavilion, a game the Sharks won 4-3 after holding off a last-ditch third-period attack by the Kings.
Big story: Both teams, along with Minnesota, have 30 points in 26 games and are in a group of eight teams that are within four points in the Western Conference playoff scramble. A win could vault one of these teams as high as fourth; a regulation loss could put the loser on the outside of the playoff picture.
Team Scope:
Sharks: The wake-up call came in the form of a second-period Andrew Desjardins hit on Colin Fraser. The hit was legal; L.A. defenseman Jake Muzzin‘s response wasn’t. Muzzin was called for instigating, unsportsmanlike conduct (instigating with a visor) and a 10-minute misconduct in addition to the five for fighting, giving the Sharks a four-minute power play. San Jose converted both ends as Matt Irwin and Logan Couture scored to turn a 1-0 lead into 3-0. Logan Couture added a third-period goal that became the winner after the Kings cut a 4-1 deficit to 4-3. It was the Sharks’ first four-goal game since Jan. 27, a 6-9-5 stretch. It was also only their second regulation win in 11 games.
“It’s always a positive when you make a play like that. It’s just like making an assist,” Desjardins told the San Jose Mercury News about the hit and the ensuing fight. “Just something to try and get the boys to feed off of, and it worked.”
“He turned the game totally around with that hit,” Sharks captain Joe Thornton said.
Kings: One big difference between this season’s team and last year’s Stanley Cup-winning squad is the scoring, now at 2.88 goals per game, good for 10th best in the NHL, versus a second-worst 2.29 last year. While the puck is getting into the net more often, captain Dustin Brown is more concerned about too many pucks going into L.A.’s net — the Kings own a very middle-of-the-pack 2.62 goals-against average, a big jump from last season’s 2.07 GAA that was second-best in the NHL.
“The last three games we’ve lost, we’ve been giving up four and five goals,” he pointed out to the Kings’ website.” A lot of games we win, 6-5.
“We’ve got to clean up our D-zone. We’re trying to climb out of 4-0, 4-1. It’s not an easy thing to do. At the end of the day, our goals against has got to come down. You look at why we were successful last year – we weren’t scoring a lot of goals, but we were winning games 1-0 and 2-1. We’ve got to really tighten up our D-zone.”
Who’s hot: Couture’s three-point night on Thursday gives him five points in four games. Thornton and Patrick Marleau picked up assists to extend their individual points streaks to three games. … Brown scored twice Thursday to give him five goals in three games.
Injury report: Sharks goalie Thomas Greiss (back) was placed on IR Monday, retroactive to March 6. Forward Martin Havlat (lower body) has missed two games but is still considered day to day. … Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell (knee) underwent platelet-rich plasma therapy on Tuesday, but has no set date to return, Defenseman Matt Greene (back) hasn’t played for almost two months and there’s no sign of his return.
**source: http://www.nhl.com/ice/preview.htm?id=2012020417&navid=sb:preview
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