To Recap the last game …..

I don’t know, I was asleep. I’m old, and I have a job. Google said the star player for the Penguins was the crossbar.

The Ducks beat the Penguins 4–3 in regulation after a familiar first-period collapse. I guess that’s progress—we usually wait until the second period for that. There were early goals from Justin Brazeau and Rickard Rakell in the first period. Anthony Mantha added his first goal as a Penguin in the second period, briefly tying things up. The game was ultimately decided late in the third after a costly delay-of-game penalty by Parker Wotherspoon (puck over glass). Chris Kreider buried the go-ahead goal on the ensuing power play, and at that point, you realized you stayed up for absolutely nothing.

Tonight, the Penguins are up against the LA Kings. Over their last 5 head-to-head match-ups, LA Kings have gone 2–1–2 vs. the Penguins, with just a +1 goal differential. Like us, the Kings will be toting out their own geriatric king, who will be playing in his last season.

The identity of this Penguins team is still a work in progress, so consider this another litmus test for resilience. Time to see what Nosferatu has in store for us. P.S. I hope he brought sunscreen.

Key Players to Watch:

Penguins:

• Blake Lizotte — is a former Kings, so he better “Do Stuff”

Kings:

• Adrian Kempe / Anze Kopitar — Kopitar is on his farewell tour; likely to be dangerous.
• Kings’ Defense – Dumoulin–Doughty, Edmundson–Clarke in practice. Yes, Dumo is still kickin’.

LGP