Red Wings at Kings
THE STORY: The Detroit Red Wings made minced meat out of Jonathan Quick the last time they visited Los Angeles. Duplicating that feat may prove difficult as the Red Wings travel to Tinseltown on Saturday night for a date with the Kings. Detroit is off to a slow start - at least by its lofty standards - and comes into this one with just two wins in seven road games so far this season. The Red Wings have dropped the first two games of their four-game jaunt by a combined score of 7-3. The Kings have won three straight and are coming off an impressive home-and-home sweep of the Anaheim Ducks. Saturday's game matches two of the hottest goaltenders in the NHL, with Quick (9-4-3, 1.96 goals-against average, three shutouts) battling Red Wings counterpart Jimmy Howard (8-5-1, 1.90 GAA, 3 SO). Detroit fired six pucks past Quick in their last California encounter on Feb. 28, but Quick has been sensational since then.
TV: 4 p.m. ET, NHL Network, Fox Sports Detroit.
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (9-7-1): Detroit fans are still trying to figure out what's wrong with struggling forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. The sensational duo, which combined for 139 points in 136 games last season, has just five goals and 13 assists so far. Datsyuk hasn't scored in his last 12 games while Zetterberg is still looking for his first multi-point performance of the campaign. Datsyuk, who came into the season a plus-187 for his career, is a minus-four through 17 games.
ABOUT THE KINGS (10-6-3): Los Angeles is finally starting to see the Mike Richards they thought they were getting. Richards, who came to the Kings in an offseason trade with Philadelphia, began the season in a goal-scoring deep freeze but has thawed to life of late, scoring five goals in his last five games. That includes his first two-goal effort of the season in Thursday's triumph against the Ducks. Richards has one goal and one assist in five career encounters with the Red Wings.
OVERTIME:
1. The Kings have dominated the head-to-head series since late-January of last year, prevailing in five of the last six meetings. Four of those wins were decided by a goal.
2. Special teams could be problematic for Detroit. The Kings have the fifth-ranked power play in the NHL (20.8 percent success rate) while the Red Wings' penalty kill is 25th at 77.8 percent.