It's a matinee matchup from Nationwide Arena today. With the city of Columbus under a snow emergency on January 26th, their game was pushed back to tonight, then had its time adjusted back three hours to allow both teams to travel ahead of back-to-back starts.
Since that game was originally moved, these two teams have headed in opposite directions. The Blue Jackets have been one of the hottest teams in the entire NHL, riding the new coach wave right back into the playoff race.
Meanwhile, the LA Kings have grasped at straws, making big changes to their lineup and firing their head coach as they search for a similar type of turn-around. It will be interesting to see what they bring today.
The Opponent
The Kings have won just two of their last ten games, dating back to the beginning of February. That slide prompted them to fire head coach Jim Hiller and replace him with DJ Smith, 8 days ago.
Despite that long skid of struggles, the Kings are still right in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race. They are 25-23-14 (64 points), just three points behind the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card spot.
Part of that is due to the fact that they are in the worst division in the NHL. The Pacific Division is terrible, with the first place team (Anaheim) holding the same points total as the Blue Jackets (73), which isn't even good enough for a playoff spot in the East.
Under Smith, the Kings are 1-2-0, not quite getting the turn-around they hoped for to this point. Still, this is a veteran heavy lineup that should have no excuses for winning a sleepy Monday afternoon game in Columbus.
Up front, their leading scorer is Artemi Panarin-though, with an asterisk. He's only played in six games with the Kings, after being acquired ahead of the trade deadline. In those games, he has 1 goal and 6 points, giving him a 20-43-63 line in 58 games this season.
The guy with the most points for the Kings this season is Adrian Kempe, who sits 10 back of Panarin with 23-30-53 in 62 games. then it's another 13 point drop to Kevin Fiala, who is out for the season.
Suffice to say, scoring comes at a bit of a premium for these guys. Which is why they have struggled this season. They play a heavy, boring, sluggish style that should be perfectly suited for a small crowd on the road. That's bad news for the Blue Jackets.
In goal, they feature team Canada backup Darcy Kuemper. He's 15-13-9 on the season, with a .896% save percentage, 2.72 goals against average, and 2 shutouts. Backing him up is former Jacket Anton Forsberg.
With the early start, there are no morning skates. So, we will have to wait to see who gets the nod today, but I would assume Kuemper on the first half of a back-to-back.
The Good Guys
The Blue Jackets are coming off of a tough loss at home on Saturday night. In front of a raucus sellout crowd, they gave us one of the most exciting comebacks of the year, before having it spoiled in overtime thanks to a blown coverage play.
While the loss wasn't ideal, the silver lining here is that they got a point in this game, despite being down 4-2 late in the third period. At this time of year, every point in the standings is vital, and getting that point means they are still within striking distance of the Boston Bruins.
A win today would push them to within one point of the Bruins, with the same number of games played. Fingers crossed, hopefully this team can find their sea legs early today and take the 2 points.
Three Keys to Success
1. Bring the energy. The Kings are going to do everything they can to slow this game to a crawl. The only way to beat that system is to out-work them and win puck battles.
2. Get to the middle. This ties in with the above. It won't be easy to get to the middle of the ice against this team. If the Blue Jackets can get inside positioning, they should be able to out-skate this team and beat them.
3. Get some saves. We broke it down this morning: when this team gets even average goaltending, they win hockey games. They will need their goaltender to bail them out once or twice this afternoon.
As mentioned at the top, it's an early start to this one, scheduled for just after 4:00 Eastern Time. Let's go Jackets!