Who: Los Angeles Kings (6-5-4, 16 points, 5th place Pacific Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (9-4-3, 21 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)
When: 2:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: Broadcast locally Sportsnet
Pittsburgh and Fanduel Sports Network, streaming on ESPN+
Pens’ Path Ahead: After today the Penguins have a few days off to travel to Sweden for a pair of games against Nashville next week starting
Opponent Track: The Kings are 1-2-0 in the month of November, losing the last time out to Florida at home on Thursday. This is the first game of a six-game Eastern road trip for Los Angeles.
Season Series: The Penguins won 4-2 back on October 16th in LA. This will be the final game of the season series.
Hidden Stat: Anze Kopitar has announced his retirement after the season, today will be his final game in Pittsburgh and against the Penguins in general. Kopitar has 25 career points (8G+17A) in 27 games against the Pens.
Getting to know the Kings
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Joel Armia – Anze Kopitar – Adrian Kempe
Kevin Fiala – Quinton Byfield – Alex Laferriere
Andrei Kuzmenko – Phillip Danault – Trevor Moore
Warren Foegele – Alex Turcotte – Corey Perry
DEFENSEMEN
Mikey Anderson / Drew Doughty
Joel Edmundson / Brandt Clarke
Brian Dumoulin / Cody Ceci
Goalies: Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg
Potential scratches: Sam Helenius, Jeff Mallot, Jacob Moverare
- The Kings are healthier than the last time the Pens saw them in October now that Kuemper and Kopitar are healthy again.
Season stats
via hockeydb
- Has Corey Perry found the fountain of youth? The veteran has scored 12, 12, and 19 goals in the last three seasons and already has six in nine games this year.
- There has been a lot of talk and rumors going back and forth about impending free agent Adrian Kempe. He’s making his case to be the next in the Kyle Connor/Martin Necas/Logan Cooley tier of players in the $10-12 million long-range. Will the Kings ante up, or will he actually make it to free agency?
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Bryan Rust – Sidney Crosby – Ben Kindel
Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin – Anthony Mantha
Joona Koppanen – Kevin Hayes – Ville Koivunen
Danton Heinen – Blake Lizotte – Connor Dewar
DEFENSEMEN
Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea / Kris Letang
Ryan Graves / Connor Clifton
Goalies: Sergei Murashov and Arturs Silovs
Potential Scratches: Philip Tomasino, Matt Dumba, Harrison Brunicke
IR: Filip Hallander, Tristan Jarry, Justin Brazeau, Jack St. Ivany (lower body), Rutger McGroarty (upper body), Joel Blomqvist (lower body), Rickard Rakell (hand), Caleb Jones (lower body, out 6-8 weeks), Noel Acciari
- Save us, Murashov? Could be the debut of the 21-year old goalie on the back-half of the back-to-back. The Pens could use the energy boost from the exuberant youngster and the natural added extra attention to detail to help out the first timer.
