Gameday Soundtrack: Revenge of the Canadiens

Here come the Kings? Things have mostly been sad for the Kings since late December, but all of a sudden they’ve amassed four consecutive wins. Players like Dustin Brown seem to be bouncing back from slumps, and there’s been a decent amount of depth in the scoring over the last three games.

The Kings’ priority should be to keep that kind of production up. Despite being (uncharacteristically) outdone in the Corsi battle against the Calgary Flames on Thursday and allowing three power play goals versus the Colorado Avalanche, the Kings have generally getting their game back on track.

The last time the Kings played the Montreal Canadiens, they delivered a 6-0 beating with Martin Jones in net. The Canadiens are without goaltender Carey Price, but they’re still bound to be looking for some revenge.

Like in December, the Kings and Canadiens look pretty similar in the stats. Though the Kings have a more significant defensive edge this round, both teams have nearly identical home and away records, rack up the same number of penalty minutes many nights, and have generated a similar amount of goals on average.

Team Canada teammates PK Subban and Drew Doughty will probably once again be the defensive matchup to watch. Subban scored the tying goal to send Montreal to an eventual overtime win versus Toronto on Saturday. Doughty has two points in the Kings’ last four games and, with the exception of a notable flub against Colorado, has gotten right back to being one of the Kings’ key players since playing in Sochi.

This game kicks off a mini Canadian parade for the Kings. After playing Montreal at Staples Center, the team goes on the road to face the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, and Flames yet again. Since the Kings were disappointing garbage on their last roadtrip, winning only two of eight games, it’d be nice for them to tear through all these Canadian teams and pick up as many points as possible.

As always, the Vancouver Canucks and Phoenix Coyotes are working to catch up and unseat the Kings’ third place spot in the Pacific. Adding as much cushion as possible is always the aim.