The Los Angeles Kings will chase a ninth consecutive home victory — and fourth straight win overall — when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday evening in a matchup of two of the NHL’s stingiest teams.
Only the Dallas Stars have given up fewer goals (93) this season than either the Kings (95) or the Lightning (99).
Despite the strong defensive record, the Kings are coming off just their second shutout victory of the season. Darcy Kuemper stopped 33 shots Wednesday as Los Angeles beat the visiting New Jersey Devils 3-0.
Kuemper has posted a 6-0-2 record since returning on Dec. 7 from a lower-body injury that shelved him for more than three weeks.
Los Angeles’ home winning streak is tied for the third longest in franchise history. Speaking after the win over the Devils, coach Jim Hiller was quick to give credit to the fans.
“I’ve said this many times, but this building — and over these last three games, I guess it’s the holidays — the building’s just been rocking,” Hiller said. “I think that it’s a really fun vibe. The music is good. Our guys love playing here. The fans are passionate. So, there’s no doubt that that drives us forward.”
Adrian Kempe leads the Kings with 18 goals and his 36 points are second behind Anze Kopitar’s 39 (12 goals, 27 assists). Kempe’s empty-net goal with less than five minutes left in the Wednesday victory extended his point streak to a season-high four games (two goals, three assists).
The Lightning arrive in Southern California after losing a pair. On Thursday, coach Jon Cooper’s team dropped the opener of its three-game California road trip 2-1 to the San Jose Sharks, who have given 143 goals (second most in the league).
Despite Tampa Bay being tied for third in the league with 135 goals, only Anthony Cirelli was able to get a puck past Yaroslav Askarov in San Jose. Still, Cooper was convinced the loss was not due to a lack of effort.
“I’ve watched this team make plays all year,” he said postgame. “Tonight, we couldn’t make them. I don’t know. For whatever reason, and it wasn’t just one guy, it was everybody. When you’re not executing at this level, it’s tough to make plays, and you know, we didn’t really make enough tonight, clearly.”
The Lightning finished the Thursday game without team captain Victor Hedman, who sustained an injury in the third period when the puck hit him on the right side of his head. Hedman, the 2018 Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s top defenseman, is third on the team with 24 assists in 33 games this season.
Cooper did not have an update on Hedman after the game, and no update was available as of Friday.
One area of concern for the Kings remains their power-play unit, which is the league’s sixth worst, converting on just 16.1 percent of its chances. After scoring goals with the man advantage in two of its three previous games, Los Angeles went 0-for-3 on Wednesday. In 10 games dating back to Dec. 10, the Kings have scored just twice in 16 man-advantage opportunities.
It may prove difficult for the Kings to get the power play jumpstarted against the Lightning. In the past six games, Tampa Bay’s penalty killers have surrendered just one goal in 16 power-play chances.
–Field Level Media
