“Armageddon now, armageddon now
coked out skeletons come back down
break ’em down, gotta break ’em down” – California Dreaming, Hollywood Undead
Not just a song lyric, but a pretty apt description of tonight’s opponent, the LA Kings. A bunch of old guys played well in LA and now they’re coming down from that high.
ICYMI: Our Worst Coast correspondent, Rez, handled recap duties last night as the Pens put the wood to the Ducks 7-4.
Tonight, the Pens head 30 miles north to STAPLES (which is in all caps for god knows what reason…) Center to take on the Kings who as of this morning possess the worst record in the National Hockey League at 17-25-3. Good for 37 points and one behind the Flyers for 30th.
One figures new contract-haver Casey “The Smith” DeSmith will get the nod tonight after Matt Murray, who is now 9-0 since returning from injury, got the win. Pensblog Overlord Jeff (that is spelled with a J) dropped the knowledge about Murr a few days back. Worth your time.
Lines (via daily faceoff)
Pens
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Pearson-Malkin-Simon
Sheahan-Brassard-Kessel
Grant-Cullen-Wilson
Dumoulin-Letang
Maatta-Oleksiak
Pettersson-Johnson
The Smith
Murray
Figure we may see Riikola draw back in for Oleksiak given the back-to-back, but who knows anymore.
Kings
Kovalchuk-Kopitar-Brown
Iafallo-Carter-Leipsic
Hagelin-Kempe-Toffoli
Wagner-Thompson-Clifford
Forbort-Doughty
Muzzin-Martinez
Phaneuf-Fantenberg
Quick
Campbell
Players to watch
Who knows when Geno will break out of this slump that has seen him score nine points in five games. When will Evgeni Malkin, who scored a goal and added three assists against the Anaheim Ducks last night, start producing like a top line player? Is tonight the night this over a point-per-game player finally rises up and finishes this seemingly never-ending cold streak? And will Phil Kessel give a quote about it?!
Your narratives are stupid.
Hot Carl was out with a lower body injury when the Kings came to town last month, but he’s back and well…he’s back. He has one assist in his last five and doesn’t it always seem like the guys we trade away score against us? I know! If you Google it and I’m wrong, direct all tweets here.
Grab some strong coffee, take a midday nap and put the cold ones on ice, because the puck drop is at 10:30pm, Correct Standard Time.
Winter is here. Go Pens.
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