Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks hit the ice at the Honda Center in Anaheim for Game 1 of their best-of-seven Round 2 series as part of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game can be live streamed for free here. Los Angeles fans can hear all of the action on Fox Sports 570 while Anaheim fans can do the same on KLAA 830.
Los Angeles is riding high after becoming the fourth team to come out of an 0-3 hole and win a series in seven against the San Jose Sharks but will hope to not be too burned out while Anaheim is coming off of a six-game series win over the Dallas Stars.
The Ducks topped the Kings in four out of five regular season meetings with two games going to a shootout and every game being decided by one goal besides Anaheim's triumph at Dodger Stadium in the NHL Stadium Series. These two California rivals meet in the playoffs for the first time in history.
The Kings played off of the experience of their historic run to the Stanley Cup as an eighth seed back in 2012 in order to comeback from a 3-0 deficit to the Sharks and win four straight games.
"When you've gone to the top of the mountain with the same group of guys it's a little bit easier when you're at the bottom to come up,'' said captain Dustin Brown, according to CBS Sports. "That's what a lot of this team is about, our guys who have stuck together and played together for years.''
The Ducks had a great amount of regular season success against the Kings, but Anaheim knows that when Los Angeles gets hot it can get on a roll as it did in 2012 when it took just 20 games in four series for them to win the Stanley Cup.
"When they started playing, they were playing like when they won the Cup," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said via NHL.com. "That's what I thought. They just kept coming and coming and they didn't deviate from the way they play."
Captain Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry led the Ducks all season long and that held true in the first round as both had were on top of the score sheet with seven points as Getzlaf notched three goals and four assists despite an injured face and Perry lit the lamp twice while adding five helpers. Nick Bonino tied with Getzlaf for a team-high three goals while adding an assist for four points.
Anze Kopitar paced the Kings and tied for the playoff lead around the league with 10 points off of four goals and six assists while Drew Doughty was the Kings MVP in the opening round and had seven points off of a goal and six helpers. Justin Williams (four goals, two assists) and Jeff Carter (two markers, four helpers) each had six points in Round 1.
Jonathan Quick will man the crease for Los Angeles after going 4-3 in the first round with a 3.10 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. Anaheim's crease is a mystery as Jonas Hillier and Frederik Andersen split time and Bruce Boudreau is keeping his plans between the pipes under wraps.
The Kings look to keep their momentum rolling while the Ducks look to take advantage of home ice when these teams hit the ice at the Honda Center tonight for Game 1 of their Round 2 series as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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