Tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET, the Buffalo Sabres (3-13-1, seven points) and Los Angeles Kings (9-6-0, 18 points) square off live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles in the first of two meetings this season. The game can be live streamed here. Buffalo fans can hear all the bone-crunching action by setting their radios to WGR 550 SportsRadio while Los Angeles fans can do the same on KTLK AM 1150.
Buffalo enters in last place in the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division, where it trails the division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning by 13 points, while Los Angeles is in fifth in the Pacific Division, nine points shy of the first-pace Anaheim Ducks and is ranked 10th in the Western Conference.
Los Angeles is coming off of a 4-3 loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday and has had four games off between games, and will look to turn its penalty killing around after the team has allowed nine goals in its last 26 short-handed situations.
"I know me and [Matt Greene] are guys they look to on that big time," defenseman Willie Mitchell told LAKingsInsider Wednesday. "We take a lot of pride in it, too. I think sometimes you can 'not care too much,' but sometimes you can press a little too much, and when you press, you start chasing it."
Buffalo enters off of a surprising victory over the San Jose Sharks 5-4 in the shootout.
"We just wanted to play hockey, play a good, solid [game], the way we want to play. Don't get down on ourselves because, yeah there were some mistakes out there from our side, but don't get down after that," veteran defenseman Henrik Tallinder told NHL.com.
Buffalo traded for Matt Moulson from the New York islanders last month, and he leads the team with 15 points on a team-high eight goals and seven assists while Cody Hodgson has lit the lamp five times with a team-high eight assists for 13 points. Hodgson has a goal and two assists in his past two games.
Anze Kopitar has paced the Kings by notching a team-high 15 points on three goals and 12 assists and has 10 points in his last 10 games, while Justin Williams (five goals, six assists) and Mike Richards (three tallies, eight helpers) each have 11 points.
Those scorers will likely have to try to beat Ryan Miller, who has started 12 of 17 games for the Sabres and is 2-10-0 with a 3.09 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage while Jonathan Quick has minded the net for the Kings in 13 of 17 games while posting an 8-5-0 record with a 2.68 GAA and a .896 save percentage.
The Sabres will try to continue an attempt to get out of the Eastern Conference cellar while the Kings will hope that four days of rest will prove to be just what they needed when the puck drops at the Staples Center in Los Angeles tonight.
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