The Kings host the Boston Bruins tonight as both teams look to avoid losing 3 straight games.
The Kings are on the back end of their back-to-back after they lost 4-3 in a shootout against the San Jose Sharks. The Bruins are also looking to avoid losing 3 straight games after falling to the Ducks 4-3.
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Here are the projected lines for the Kings tonight:
Andrei Kuzmenko – Anze Kopitar – Trevor Moore
Kevin Fiala – Quinton Byfield – Adrian Kempe
Warren Foegele – Phillip Danault – Alex Laferriere
Joel Armia – Alex Turcotte – Corey Perry
Mikey Anderson – Brian Dumoulin
Joel Edmundson – Brandt Clarke
Jacob Moverare – Cody Ceci
Darcy Kuemper
Anton Forsberg
Here are the projected lines for the Bruins tonight:
Matej Blumel – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak
Alex Steeves – Marat Khusnutdinov – Morgan Geekie
Tanner Jeannot – Fraser Minten – Mark Kastelic
Riley Tufte – Sean Kuraly – Michael Eyssimont
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Nikita Zadorov – Jonathan Aspirot
Hampus Lindholm – Henri Jokiharju
Mason Lohrei – Andrew Peeke
Jeremy Swayman
Joonas Korpisalo
The Kings remain relatively healthy, with only Drew Doughty out with a lower-body injury. Since the Kings are on game 2 of a back-to-back, we see goaltender Darcy Kuemper get the nod tonight. For the Bruins, they have been dealing with the injury bug as they are missing Charlie McAvoy ( Lower body), Elias Lindholm ( Lower Body), Jordan Harris ( Ankle Surgery), Casey Mittelstadt ( lower body), and Viktor Arvidsson ( Lower body)
The Kings are facing a very beaten-up Bruins team tonight, but they should not take that for granted, as both David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie have a combined 25 goals between them, and they have been able to win games for the Bruins due to their offence single-handedly. The Kings will once again look to the second line to generate offence, especially from Adrian Kempe, who leads the team in points.
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Kuemper and Swayman are facing off tonight. Swayman is 4-1 in 5 games against the Kings, and Kuemper is 3-7-1 against the Bruins. The Kings will also be looking at their defence to help contain the Bruins’ offence, specifically Brandt Clarke, who logged the most minutes by a Kings defenseman in the Sharks game last night, playing 23 minutes.
If the Kings can get to Swayman early, the floodgates will open, and on the backend, having the defence focus on containing the duo of Geekie and Pastrnak will also be key to them winning. My prediction for tonight is a 3-1 Kings win.