Coyotes vs. Kings (Part 3) - Game #14 Preview

Only 14 games into the season and this will be the third time the Phoenix Coyotes will be playing the Los Angeles Kings. That's pretty nuts. Facing them three times before we've even seen the Stars? Who the heck is making these schedules? Whatever. All I know is this. The Kings are chasing us in the Pacific and they're one of the few teams so far this season that has figured out how to score on us. We had a good come from behind win on Saturday, hopefully we don't need to pull another one out tonight.

Five for Winning

Hit'em Hard and Hit'em Often: We seem to play best when we've got a bit of a spark under us. The usually comes in the form of getting a few big hits. This also helps directly with our new puck possession game. Going all the way back to the Boston game, when we make it dangerous for the other team to touch the puck we usually come out on top The Winnik-Fiddler-Pyatt line has been great at this as will as Paul Bissonette in handing out some punishment.

Do I Need to Keep Telling You about GAA?: Top in the league again with 25 goals against in 13 games giving us a team GAA of 1.92. We're the only team left under the two goal mark and in LA we have a team that's scored nearly a third of those goals against us with a total of 8 in the two games. We need to find a way to impose our game on them tonight.

O Captain My Captain: Shane Doan showed us once again why he's a fan favorite and the captain of this team. After taking a brutal hit that had the fans stunned and worried (a few actually crying) he came back out and started laying down the law on the Ducks players on Saturday. He even fought Wizniewski at the start of the second showing guys that get away with cheap hits that they aren't going to run us. Gotta love Captain Coyote.

Keep Kopitar Down: He's currently tied for second in the league at 21 points (10-11-21). For a Kings team that hasn't been strong in recent years, it's good for him to get going early and lead by example... Just not tonight. Martin Hanzal will likely be responsible for him again and hopefully he and his line can quiet him and Smyth and make someone else try and beat us.

Shootout could be our friend: The Kings have lost two straight as a result of the shootout. While we don't really want to go there, giving another point to a Pacific Division team, It's good to know that if we do we're 2-0 in the shootout and 4-0 overall when the Coyotes go into overtime. Good to know that we're not just settling for the point.

GO YOTES!