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Columbus Blue Jackets Staring Down The Barrel – Rink Royalty

By Lansing Murphy |
COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 03: Forward Jarret Stoll
COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 03: Forward Jarret Stoll
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The Columbus Blue Jackets host the Kings the only time this season on Saturday. Let’s get a behind the scene look at the Kings from Brook at RinkRoyalty.com

The boys in union blue will look to bounce back against the Los Angeles Kings Saturday following a tough 2-0 loss. The Columbus Blue Jackets face another top team in the league at Nationwide and look to get back on a winning streak.

The Kings are 5-0-1 leading the Western Conference coming into this big time match up. Before the game I sat down with RinkRoyalty.com site expert Brook Smith to talk about the game. Be sure to check out his work this season as the Kings bounce back and are a Western Conference favorite.

Lansing Murphy (LM)– So Jeff Carter is conveniently “hurt” for his only game back in Columbus this year. Not a question really just wanted to point that out.

Brook Smith (BS)– You got me on that one, the timing is impeccable haha. Hopefully he isn’t out too long though. Jeff Carter has and will continue to be part of the core of our team moving forward. We had a down season last year (obviously), but it’s looking like things are beginning to look up.

COLUMBUS, OH – DECEMBER 20: Peter Budaj
COLUMBUS, OH – DECEMBER 20: Peter Budaj /

New Coach and GM for the Kings

LM- How much of the teams success do you think is tied to a new coach and GM?

Columbus Blue Jackets
Columbus Blue Jackets /

Columbus Blue Jackets

BS- Seeing Darryl Sutter leave was tough at first. His son was always a fan favorite walking around the stadium during games and taking pictures with fans. But the change was necessary, and early on they’re proving that to be true.

The Kings are 5-0-1, and they’ve won in pretty big ways. With essentially the same core of guys as last year. At least a small part of that has to be attributed to the job Coach John Stevens has done early on. The promotion of Rob Blake was expected, as an in-house legend to the organization and so far so good. He hasn’t changed the face of the roster or tried to do anything to overhaul a team that didn’t need overhauling, so I’m thankful for that. The guys we have in the front office are tremendous, and Blake should only add to that.

LM- Who is the most underrated player on the Kings roster?

BS- Adrian Kempe probably just demonstrated last night that he is the most underrated player on our team thus fat. Kempe put up a hat trick against a Canadiens team that has really been struggling early on this season. Kempe was taken 29th overall in the 2014 draft, so it’s sort of difficult to call him underrated.

But considering most did not expect him to contribute this much this early, he’s probably been underrated. I mean, the guy played in 25 games last season and scored 22 goals. He just topped that in one game, six games into the season.

LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 29: Bailey of the Los Angeles Kings and Stinger of the Columbus Blue Jackets line up at center ice during the mascot showdown prior to the 2017 Honda NHL All-Star Game at Staples Center on January 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 29: Bailey of the Los Angeles Kings and Stinger of the Columbus Blue Jackets line up at center ice during the mascot showdown prior to the 2017 Honda NHL All-Star Game at Staples Center on January 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Kings Season Outlook and Game Prediction

LM- What do you think the ceiling for the Kings is this season?

BS- The Kings’ ceiling is about as high as their core guys can take them. They have a good mix of established young guys along side seasoned veterans, so they main guys will really need to perform. That means Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown will all need to play up to their potential.

On top of that, we need our guys healthy. We had quite a few key pieces go down early last year and that took the wind out of our sails early on. If we can do that, I’m thinking we’ll be taking a couple of drinks out of the Stanley Cup with ease.

LM- Why will the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Kings?

BS- Oh that’s a tough one. I think the Blue Jackets definitely pull it out if the Kings’ all come down with the flu. Other than that, I think you might be seeing too much of Kopitar and Kempe in the back of the net.

Thanks again to Brooks for joining us for the behind the scenes look at the Kings.

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