Los Angeles Kings vs. St. Louis Blues: Preview

While the Los Angeles Kings are in the midst of yet another downhill slide this season, the St. Louis Blues are fighting for their playoff lives. The two teams meet tonight (5:30 PM PST, televised in the Los Angeles area on FSN West) at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.

The Blues are currently 14th in the fifteen-team Western Conference, eight points behind 8th place Colorado for the final playoff berth in the conference. Interestingly, both the Blues and the Kings are just 3-5-2 in their last ten games.

But the still-playoff-hopeful Blues are clearly struggling, having lost their six games (0-5-1), having been outscored 16-4 during their current losing streak.

The Blues also have just five wins in their last sixteen games (5-8-3), and there has been talk coming out of the St. Louis media that Blues players are turning out head coach Andy Murray, who Kings fans will remember as the former Kings head coach.

The Blues’ slide began against the Kings on February 21, a 5-1 win by the Kings at Staples Center.

Speaking of slides, the Kings are in the midst of their own four-game slide (0-2-2) and they have lost six of their last seven games (1-4-2).

Forward Michael Cammalleri appears to be finding his game after recovering from a rib cartilage strain that forced him out of the lineup for 17 games. He has three goals and six assists for nine points in his last five games.

Winger Patrick O’Sullivan has been hot lately, scoring five goals with eight assists for 13 points in his last thirteen games.

Center Anze Kopitar, the Kings’ leading scorer with 28 goals and 36 assists for 64 points, has three goals with six assists for nine points in the last five games.

Erik Ersberg, who looked sharp in a 2-1 overtime loss at Minnesota on Sunday, is expected to get the start against the Blues.

In two appearances, including one start, Ersberg is 0-0-2 with a 1.89 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage.

All stories and audio content on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original story on this site are required.