Gameday Soundtrack: We’re Gonna Need More D!

 
Playing seven defensemen worked out so well for the Kings last game that Darryl Sutter is leaning towards doing it again tonight in Chicago. Jeff Carter may double shift and center the fourth line. Oh, boy! Oh… boy…

So, the Kings have been messy for the last week. To be fair, that’s only been two games — one against Dallas and one against Nashville. In those games, they haven’t even been terrible throughout the entire 60 minutes. They’ve been strong at times and sloppy during stretches. The problem is that those stretches have led to important goals against. The game-winner in Nashville is a perfect example of that.

I went full Rob Ryan on that last goal. This is actually a gif of me.

Now they’re back in Chicago, playing against a team that previously ran over the Kings defense like it didn’t exist. At 5v5, the Kings possessed the puck 41 percent of the time (36 percent if looking at FF), which is usually not the recipe for success. I mean, I’ve heard.

On top of being the better possession team, the Blackhawks are still the better offensive team. They’re still the best offensive team in the entire league. A huge chunk of their recent success goes to the Patricks on their team. Patrick Kane is on a 14-game point streak, a career high for him, and still holding at second place in individual in points the entire NHL. Meanwhile, Patrick Sharp scored a hat trick on his birthday a couple games ago and then scored again in Chicago’s next game against St. Louis just to prove he could.

The Blackhawks average 3.7 goals per game. They’ve scored at least five goals in their last three games and miraculously lost one, but it was in the shootout and to the second best offensive team in the league.

Though they’re absolutely a difficult team to play, the Chicago Blackhawks aren’t impossible to beat either. On the bright side, Ben Scrivens and Martin Jones are still the two strongest goaltenders in league. Jones will likely start for the Kings tonight, looking to bounce back from his pre-Christmas ride on the regression express. What killed the Kings the last time these teams faced one another was LA coming out flat. They allowed three goals in the first period. Scrivens closed things down in the second and third periods, but the rest of the team never got enough momentum to come back offensively.

It’s hard to expect much from this game, because the Kings have had a lot of trouble with the Blackhawks these last two seasons. Tonight could see them earn their first three-game losing streak in 2013-14, but if they come out with the right energy and get back on their game defensively (and for the love of literally anything in the world at this point, not take at least four penalties), they could muster something up.