Kings at Blues
THE STORY: The St. Louis Blues have certainly put forth a
better effort under new coach Ken Hitchcock, going 4-0-2 through his
first six games behind the bench. But after winning three straight at
home, the Blues went on the road and suffered a bit of a letdown in a
shootout loss at Minnesota on Saturday. St. Louis took a costly penalty
with 1:48 left in the game and the Wild were able to force overtime with
a power-play goal. St. Louis gets to go back home Tuesday when it hosts
the Los Angeles Kings, who had their own three-game winning streak come
to an end over the weekend. The Kings, one of the stronger defensive
teams in the league, were bitten by four unanswered goals in a home loss
to the Detroit Red Wings.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, Versus, TSN2
ABOUT THE KINGS (10-7-3): Los Angeles’ lack of offense is putting
pressure on the blue line and goaltenders Jonathan Quick and Jonathan
Bernier to be perfect. When the Kings have managed to score at least
three goals this season, they are undefeated. That has only happened
seven times. Los Angeles looked like it was making an offensive
breakthrough during their recent streak when they scored five goals
twice and totaled 12 in the three wins. But the Kings went 0-for-4 on
the power play and generated only 24 shots against Detroit.
ABOUT THE BLUES (10-7-2): That power-play goal wasn’t the only
special teams breakdown on Saturday for St. Louis, which also allowed a
shorthanded tally in the 3-2 loss. Special teams was one of Hitchcock’s
main focuses when he took the job and had been improved in his first
five games. The tying goal ended a string of 16 straight successful
penalty kills.
OVERTIME:
1. Blues right wing Chris
Stewart will serve the final game of his three-game suspension for
hitting Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall from behind Nov. 15.
2. St. Louis took all four meetings last season by a combined 15-6.
3. Kings center Mike Richards has scored a shorthanded goal in each of the last two games.