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Blues at Kings preview with coach Sutter – plus First Goal Contest

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Is this a possible playoff preview?

If the NHL’s post-season was kicking off today, one of the first round match-ups in the Western Conference would feature the St. Louis Blues vs. the Los Angeles Kings. With a few weeks left in the regular season though, the brackets are far from being decided. For now, the Kings want to keep winning – and as Rob Scuderi said on last night’s MayorsManor LIVE show, LA still has its sights set on the Pacific Division title.

This is the fourth and final meeting between the teams, with the Kings holding a 2-1-0 series lead. However, the Blues won the last game, earning a 1-0 shutout in early February. The Kings are currently riding a season-high five game winning streak.

In addition to Scuderi, we also heard thoughts from Jarret Stoll on last night’s show. These are some additional thoughts from coach Darryl Sutter…

“They’re the best team in the league for good reason – work ethic, physical game. They play the same way, it doesn’t matter who’s out there, they all play the same way. They have really good depth. They can pretty much throw four lines, whoever they want at you. They’ve had the luxury this year of having two goalies who are right on top of it. So, they can rotate them. Their strengths have some similarities to us. We like to think that our work ethic is close to theirs. We (also) want to be able to match them physically. So, it comes down to the individual stuff then.”

As usual, MayorsManor will host a First Goal Contest tonight. But, before you submit your guess, here’s who a few of the players think will score first…

Stoll – “Mike Richards”

Scuderi – “Justin Williams”

Jordan Nolan – “Colin Fraser”

Justin Williams – “I’d like to say myself (laughing). Sure, why not?”

If you’d like to enter, simply leave a comment below with the LA player you think will score first vs. the Blues. All correct answers will be pooled together and one random winner will be awarded a free pair of tickets to an upcoming Kings home game.

To help you with your selection, the following stats may come in handy…

– Dustin Brown has 13 goals in 28 career games vs St. Louis

– Anze Kopitar has 9 goals in 23 games (has also scored in each of the Kings last four games)

– Williams has 1 goal in 18 games

– Richards has 2 goals in 7 games

– Jeff Carter has 1 goal in 7 games

– Stoll has 6 goals in 28 games

– Drew Doughty has 1 goal in 14 games

Of course, feel free to take Kyle Clifford, Matt Greene, Trevor Lewis or any of the other Kings players. Just stay clear of Kevin Westgarth, Brad Richardson and Davis Drewiske because they’re expected to once again be healthy scratches from tonight’s game.

Good luck!

Note: If you missed last night’s show and want to catch the replay, click here. Besides Scuderi and Stoll, Kings prospect Brandon Kozun called in from Manchester to talk about what’s going on there, we spoke with David Burstyn (Director of Scouting for from McKeen’s Hockey) who educated us on prospects in the OHL and we had lots of hockey talk surrounding the current playoff races.

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Comments

  54. Albeit Kopi is hot and Richards will start putting up goals my guess will be Brown since I work for UPS: What Can Brown Do For You? LMAO

  119. Normally, if the Kings don’t score in regulation or overtime, there isn’t a winner in the First Goal Contest…becuase shootout goals don’t officially count as a ‘goal’ in NHL statistics. However, the Kings had a big win last night and they’re in first place. So, we’re going to make an exception here and declare Mike Richards as the guy who scored the first goal. One random winner was pulled from the above entries and ‘Sher’ is getting a free pair of tickets – see above.