Kings at Coyotes
No team personifies the discrepancy between success at home and struggles on the road more than the Los Angeles Kings, who will try to change the latter when they visit the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. The reigning Stanley Cup champions lead the league with 11 wins at home but are tied for the fewest victories on the road with only two in 10 games (2-4-4). Los Angeles, which lost at Arizona in overtime in the second game of the season, kicks off a stretch with six of its next seven on the road.
Since posting a season-high three-game winning streak in early November, the Coyotes have been careening in the other direction with nine losses in the past 13 contests (4-7-2). A big reason for those struggles is the team's inability to hold serve at home - Arizona has dropped five in a row (0-3-2) at Jobing.com Arena as it prepares to kick off a five-game homestand. The Coyotes have fared well against the Kings, winning four of the past five matchups overall and the last five at home.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN West (Los Angeles), FSN Arizona
ABOUT THE KINGS (13-7-5): Defenseman Alec Martinez returned to the lineup after missing seven games following finger surgery and logged 19:01 of ice time. Martinez, who establish career highs with 11 goals and 22 points last season and scored the overtime tally that clinched the most recent Stanley Cup for Los Angeles, reportedly signed a six-year contract worth $24 million on Wednesday. Goaltender Jonathan Quick's fortunes mirror those of the Kings - he recorded his franchise-best 34th shutout in Tuesday's 2-0 win over Boston to improve to 10-1-1 in his last 12 starts at home.
ABOUT THE COYOTES (10-13-3): Arizona has allowed the third-most goals (81) in the Western Conference and netminder Mike Smith has won only five of 19 starts while sporting a ghastly 3.23 goals-against average. "Long story short, we need to continue to tighten up in our end and continue to try and find more offense and speed," Coyotes general manager Don Maloney said. "We need to do a better job (defensively) as a group and once we do that then the results will turn for us." Rookie Tobias Rieder has scored three times in four games, including a pair of short-handed tallies at Edmonton on Monday.
OVERTIME
1. Despite his overall struggles, Smith is 11-4-1 with a 2.16 goals-against average versus Los Angeles.
2. Kings F Marian Gaborik (upper body) is expected to miss his third consecutive game.
3. Arizona hasn't lost six straight at home since Jan. 27-Feb. 16, 2009.