Gameday Soundtrack: Motown Rematch

Game 49 is here already? At this point in games played last season, teams were calling it a wrap and preparing for the playoffs. With the full 82-game schedule back, things are still heating up for the second half of the regular season, and the Kings are making enemies. Or, really, they’re old rivals who are freshly angry.

The Kings have stitched together two consecutive wins for the first time in 2014. First, the Vancouver Canucks showed up in LA with massive revenge plans. They succeeded in letting the main target of their anger, Dustin Brown, score the only goal in the game. Victory! Then, in St. Louis, Jake Muzzin made all Blues fans his enemies by opening the scoring, elbowing Vladimir Sobotka in the head and miraculously not getting a call from NHL Player Safety for it, and then either miming spitting on fans or actually spitting on fans, it’s not clear.

What is clear is how St. Louis fans feel about Muzzin now:

#STLBlues #Kings @stlouisgametime https://t.co/BQUEHekPeR

— Jason McAdams (@JMill1120) January 17, 2014

When I write that the last two wins have been hard-fought, I really mean that the Kings have had to fight a lot.

Now the Kings roll into the D, where I hear it is still so cold. Mostly for Detroit. Not only have they lost the two games they’ve played since beating LA last Saturday, they’ve been completely shut out in both of them. They’re only two points out a playoff spot, but the wild card race is tight between them, Toronto, Washington, Ottawa, and New Jersey, and three of those teams also have games today.

Goaltender Jimmy Howard has been a silver lining for the Wings. He’s worked hard to keep his team in games since his return. Both of the Wings’ last two losses had final scores of 1-0.

The Red Wings and Kings enter tonight’s game with similar goals per game averages — 2.49 and 2.46, respectively. The Kings are the better defensive team, allowing only 1.96 goals per game and still sitting atop the entire NHL in possession. Howard has been great for the Wings recently, but Jonathan Quick’s been clawing his way back to more solid numbers since returning from injury, too. His save percentage has climbed to .916 from .905 in the last five games, boosted by shutting out the Canucks. His goals against average has dropped to 2.06. Those numbers are better than his career regular season totals (.915 sv%, 2.30 GAA).

All of this means the Red Wings could easily find a way to hang around all game. The Kings were the better team on paper last week, too, and the Red Wings left Staples Center with a 3-1 win. With some important divisional match-ups coming next week, the Kings should try their best not to play down to their opponent.

On the bright side, they’ve finally remembered the launch codes for Trevor Lewis. He fell just short of the hat trick last game, but hopefully he hasn’t used up all of his firepower this season and can try to make up for that tonight. The Kings also had contributions from the fourth line and Jeff Carter, though his was an empty-netter. They need to tap into all those players again tonight and jet out of Detroit better in the standings.