 Nashville's Pekka Rinne (photo by: Ikiri) |
Last week, the Kings traveled to Nashville, outshot the Predators 31-28 and still came away with a 2-1 loss. Revenge isn’t the top priority for LA captain Dustin Brown at the moment though.
“Considering the situation, at this point in the year, you’re not looking at the opponent as a team we just played a week ago,” he said. “It’s just another game we have to find a way to win.”
Actually, ‘two-points per night’ has sort of turned into the unofficial rallying cry for the next four games. “There are some teams on this road trip that are really playing really good hockey and we have to be prepared to grind games out,” Brown declared.
Tonight in Nashville, it certainly won’t be as an easy one, as the Predators have earned at least one point in 12 straight games at home.
“I thought we played a good game last time though,” said the Kings leading goal scorer. “We went in there and did a lot of good things last time. Now, we have to have the same effort and find ways to score more goals.”
Which means, in part, finding a way to beat Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. The Preds’ stellar netminder leads the league with 36 wins and sports a .927 save percentage.
So how do they beat him?
“We have to get in front of him and disrupt him a little more than we did in our last game there. That has to be a focus for the forwards, getting around the net and making it hard for him.”
Leaving Music City with two points tonight would also make things a little easier this week as the Kings next head to Columbus (which figures to be an emotional game due to the Jeff Carter-Jack Johnson trade), then on to Detroit and Chicago – two more buildings that are never easy to win in.
Final note, Kevin Westgarth, who will be a healthy scratch again tonight, says he’s going with Carter for the first Kings goal – “Carts is going to bury it in Nash, he has a hot stick.”
If you’d like to participate in the MayorsManor First Goal contest, we’ll be giving away a free pair of tickets to an upcoming Kings home game. It’s easy to play, simply leave a comment below with the LA player you think will score first vs. the Predators…or reply to the facebook / twitter updates that will be posted around 5:00pm. All correct answers will be pooled together and one random winner will be awarded the tickets. Good luck!
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