Gameday Soundtrack: Banging Bodies with the Bruins

 
One of my good buddies once described the Kings as “one of those teams that pretends to be bad but is actually great.” Stretches like the last couple weeks remind me of that, where most of the stats say the Kings are a freight train that runs over competition, but the final score suggests they’re weak and possibly not that hard to beat.

The Kings dropped their last game to the Minnesota Wild in the shootout after controlling the pace for most of the evening and throwing a barrage of shots at back-up goalie Darcy Kuemper. That I thought they were lucky to escape with an OT point is probably indicative of the crap the Kings put their supporters through.

Lately I feel like I’m humiliating myself in a romantic comedy with this team.

Despite the sincerity of my affection, more often than not, the Kings have heard my heartfelt hopes and said —

Darryl Sutter hasn’t really even bothered to change the line combinations much during these annoying times. The team just keeps on keeping on in hopes that dam will eventually break, and I keep coming back like I always do.

Make way for Boston! We’ve seen the Kings take on top offensive teams in recent weeks, but the Bruins are a lot like an LA Kings East in the way they’re built and produce. Just look at the team stats:

Though the Bruins are doing a better job of converting goals, both teams earn a similar amount of shots on goal and allow a similar number of shots per game. The Kings edge out the Bruins in goals against per game, but Boston is the second best defensive team in the league despite goaltender Tuukka Rask having an off night against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night, allowing the Ducks to beat the Bruins 5-2.

Get ready for a tough, grind it out game. With these two physical teams focused on preventing opponents’ goals and generally being pretty good at that, this could be another brutal, lower scoring night at Staples Center. The Kings are the better possession team, but their challenge continues to be finding ways to get pucks in the net more than once or twice.

Since Martinez & Toffoli scored against San Jose, goals have come from 77, 74, 77, 14, 14, 28, 11, 77, 77, 11, 23, 77, 77, 28.

— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) January 8, 2014

Jeff Carter has accounted for almost 50 percent of the Kings goal-scoring since the team’s shooting percentage took a dive at the end of December. LA needs top guys like him to keep finding ways to produce, but if they can get the bottom six players contributing again while staying out of the penalty box, they’ll of course have a much better chance at a regulation win.

And the goals have to come sometime, right? RIGHT? They’re going to regress eventually, aren’t they? What if it’s today? Imagine.