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Five things to watch when the Calgary Flames play host to the Los Angeles Kings:
1. The fatigue factor
The Kings' season has gone off the rails – they've dropped seven of their last 10 games – and this is not a good spot for them to get back on track.
They're playing a back-to-back on the road, which is not ideal, but if you dig deeper things look even worse for them. This is their third game in four nights, their fourth in six nights, and their fifth in the span of a week.
Professional athletes are professional athletes for a reason but this is a game where fatigue could, and should, be a legitimate issue for them.
If the Flames come out firing – they should after the egg they just laid vs Buffalo – and use their team speed, the Kings will have trouble keeping up.
2. LA's leaky 2nd line
The Tanner Pearson - Adrian Kempe - Tyler Toffoli trio is dangerous offensively but they give back a lot at the other end of the rink.
Among 119 line combinations who have skated at least 100 5v5 minutes together, they rank 107th in expected goals against/60. This, of course, means they give up a lot of good chances.
Mikael Backlund will undoubtedly see a lot of Anze Kopitar, which means the Johnny Gaudreau line should get a favorable matchup here.
3. Matthew Tkachuk
The sophomore winger has been a force of late tallying 12 points in his last 12 games. During that span, he leads the Flames in goals (7), shots (33), chances (34) and high-danger chances (23).
He's getting a ton of quality looks around the net and the points are piling up as a result. He'll have a tough matchup against the Kopitar line tonight, however, I wouldn't bet against him finding the scoresheet again with the way he's been playing.
4. Discipline
Only five teams have taken more penalties than the Kings and only two have a worse penalty differential. They struggle to stay out of the box at the best of times so I'd expect them to run into some problems tonight given the fatigue factor. If the Flames keep their feet moving, and guys like Tkachuk and Garnet Hathaway continue to piss off everyone on the opposing team, they should get their fair share of power plays.
5. The 3rd line
Sam Bennett (one point in 10), Garnet Hathaway (one point in 10) and Mark Jankowski (two points in 10) have been fairly quiet of late but I think this is a good spot for them to get back on track. They should play almost exclusively against a pretty underwhelming LA bottom-6.
Here are the projected lineups:
Calgary
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Micheal Ferland
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Troy Brouwer
Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Garnet Hathaway
Martin Hrivik - Matt Stajan - Curtis Lazar
Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton
T.J. Brodie - Travis Hamonic
Brett Kulak - Michael Stone
Mike Smith
Los Angeles (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Alex Iaffalo - Anze Kopitar - Dustin Brown
Tanner Pearson - Adrian Kempe - Tyler Toffoli
Marian Gaborik - Mike Amadio - Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford - Nick Shore - Torrey Mitchell
Paul Ladue - Drew Doughty
Jake Muzzin - Alec Martinez
Kevin Gravel - Christian Folin
Jonathan Quick/Darcy Kuemper
Puck drop is just after 10:00 eastern and can be seen on SN360 and FS-W.
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