Pittsburgh Penguins host the Los Angeles Kings
One of the cross conference games of the National Hockey League 2010-11 season will take place this Thursday as the Pittsburgh Penguins play host to the Los Angeles Kings at the Consol Energy Centre. This is the only meeting between the two sides with their
last meeting taking place during the course of the previous season as the Los Angeles Kings managed to turn the tables and win 5-2 in the end.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are currently facing many issues at this crucial stage of the season. Sidney Crosby has still shown no sign of returning after his concussion and Evgeni Malkin has not fully recovered from the knee injury he sustained. Malkin is definitely
out for the rest of the season as he is expected to have surgery on his knee in the coming few days.
Now the Penguins face another problem which comes in the form of Matt Cooke missing four games. Cooke was suspended after he hit the Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin from the back. On the other hand, the Los Angeles Kings have been able to recover
some form after playing some unremarkable ice hockey.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are going through some of the best times in the season, even though they lost Jordan Staal and later had Captain Sidney Crosby injured. However, they still managed to come up with regular wins, even with the injury to Evgeni Malkin.
Unfortunately, that winning run has come to a standstill as they have suffered two consecutive losses in the last two games. They lost the first game 4-0 against the Washington Capitals and lost 4-1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
The failure of the frontline to convert the chances into goals has raised quite a few questions as to whether or not the Penguins can be a reckoning force in the play-offs.
"I'm not going to play any different just because [Crosby and Malkin] are out and I don't think anybody else should either," forward Tyler Kennedy said after the Penguins recent loss to the Blue Jackets.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have played 55 games so far out of which they have won 34 games in regulation time, 4 games in overtime and scored 72 points. The Los Angeles Kings has played 53 games out which they have won 29 games in regulation time, 2 games in
overtime and scored 60 points.
The Los Angeles Kings started off the New Year brilliantly as they did not lose a game in regulation time throughout the entire month of January. The Kings kept putting in decent performances and their strategies seem to work repeatedly as they have been
able to come up with some decent results.
The most recent and one of the important games saw them winning against the Calgary Flames 4-3. King’s forward Justin Williams was very happy over the team’s performance in the game. He said, "We have to make that next step," he said. "[The Flames game]
was a statement game. We won. We weren't at our best at times, but we need to keep pushing forward. Hopefully this is something big for us to start."
The game is expected to be very competitive as both sides are evenly matched. The teams will be looking for a decisive victory to prove their dominance in this cross conference game.
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