'Two different teams, two different games': Hawks prepare for California road trip
Los Angeles is known for its excitement - its glamour, its movie stars, its sports teams, and its geography. Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. It's a who's-who of districts, neighborhoods and beautiful beaches. There seems to be an incessant buzz around Los Angeles.
But as far as hockey goes, Patrick Kane seems to think differently.
"L.A. plays that 1-3-1 pretty boring style of game," he said, "and [we] just gotta be patient with it. Even last night, I think they won 1-0, Minnesota only had 21 shots, I don't even know if they had a power play. It's not a complete offensive game, you gotta be patient with it."
The L.A. Kings (8-6-1) are the first stop Thursday night on a quick two-game road trip to California, the other game being against the Anaheim Ducks (4-8-1) on Saturday night. And as difficult as it is traveling to the West Coast for a quick trip, it does help that the Blackhawks saw the Kings just two games prior.
"At least we saw L.A. not long ago, just a few games ago," head coach Luke Richardson said, "so that'll be a little bit more familiar for us."
The last time these two teams faced off, the Hawks beat the Kings with a Jonathan Toews overtime winner in a game tied at 1-1 at the end of regulation.
"L.A., I expect a harder game out of them," Richardson said. "It was a bit of a sloppy game for both teams last game. Last night they had a real hard effort and got the 1-0 win, so we expect a little bit of a harder effort like that, and they're a big team, and they're good in the faceoff circle, which we gotta get back to really trying to own that area a little bit more so we can have the puck a little more."
Despite Tuesday night's rock fight between the Kings and Wild, which the Kings won 1-0, L.A. ranks sixth in the league with 49 goals and has allowed the third-most goals with 53, so Thursday's game might be more of a dramatic game than expected.
But the Anaheim game might be the one on this road trip that hits a double-digit goal total: About a week and a half ago, the Ducks beat the Maple Leafs 4-3 and followed it with finals of 6-5, 5-8, 5-4 and 3-5 against the Sharks, Canucks, Sharks, and Panthers, respectively. Anaheim leads the league in most goals allowed (60) and goals per game (4.62).
"Anaheim's a team that's played some high-scoring games," Kane said, "so it should be two different teams, two different games, but hopefully we can have some success out here and get some points."
Slap shots:
• The Blackhawks have struggled on the road thus far at 1-3-1, with their one victory coming against San Jose. Can they make it three wins against California teams?
• The Hawks lead the league with a 57% faceoff win percentage, but they have been slipping a bit. "We gotta get back to really trying to own that area a little bit more, so we can have the puck a little more," Richardson said.
• The Blackhawks are having a fathers' trip this weekend, which allows the dads of the players to experience a road trip with the team. "It's inspiration to get a few wins on the trip, so everybody can really enjoy it," Richardson said.