There aren’t really do-overs in professional sports, but the Kings would likely request one if they could. Tuesday’s game in Buffalo, where coach Darryl Sutter’s team was shutout by the host Sabres, was not one of their finer moments in recent years and left just about everybody in the locker room saying they need to be better, individually and as a team. Will that produce different results in Ottawa tonight?
While we await the definitive answer to that question, we’re proudly joined by perhaps the man who knows both franchises better than any other human alive. Roy Mlakar served as Executive Vice President, and later President, of the Kings during the Wayne Gretzky years. Then, beginning in 1996, he took over as President of the Senators, a post he held for more than a decade.
Additionally, longtime Kings fans will likely remember him as a regular guest of the Jim Rome radio show, way back when the show was first taking off and gaining national attention. Not only was it groundbreaking for an executive of a major sports team to be so accessible, but Mlakar could also more than hold his own in the “smack talk” that was Rome’s Jungle back in those days. In fact, his relationship with Rome has extended for over 20 years now. He still comes on every year during the playoffs and has correctly picked the last three Stanley Cup winners.
You simply can’t talk Kings-Sens without his name quickly coming up, so who better to join us for this edition of Puck Probability? Below are a handful of things each of us think just might happen in tonight’s game…
Odds by MayorsManor:
2:1 – Bobby Ryan scores for the Sens. Has he ever not scored against the Kings, you ask? Well, yes. He has 10 goals and nine assists in 32 career games vs. L.A., including four goals in 14 games at Staples Center.
5:1 – Jordan Nolan will fight Chris Neil. Why? Well, 13 years ago, in a penalty filled game – including Felix Potvin in a goalie fight – Adam Deadmarsh, allegedly, told one of the Senators, ‘You’re [expletive] next!’ That debt was never paid… until now. Check it out…
10:1 – The Kings will finish with four or fewer penalty minutes. In the 14 games between the two teams since that epic brawl in 2001, L.A. has accumulated a grand total of 30 penalty minutes.
25:1 – Mike Richards is a healthy scratch.
44:1 – Robyn Regehr will end the night with a plus-2 rating.
100:1 – Crag Anderson, pictured, will challenge Jonathan Quick to a fight.
Odds by Roy Mlakar:
10:1 Martin Jones gets a shutout, if he is the starting goaltender.
5:1 Jonathan Quick registers another shutout, if he is the starting goaltender.
4:1 “That 70’s Line” will have at least five points.
3:1 Kings out-shoot Ottawa by 20 shots on goal.
2:1 Kings out-muscle smaller Ottawa forwards.
1:1 Kings come up with win!
I guess it’s true what they say, once a King, always a King. Follow him on twitter here.
See other recent odds articles here …or to read five things you may not know about the Kings-Senators, click here.
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About John Hoven
