The St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings have gotten to know each other well over the past week.
On Saturday, the teams will meet — in Los Angeles — for the third time in eight days and the final time in the regular season.
The Blues won the first two games against the Kings, including a 3-2 shootout victory on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
St. Louis has won six of its last seven games and enters Saturday just one point behind the Vancouver Canucks for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Los Angeles sits third in the Pacific Division, five points shy of the Edmonton Oilers for second place. However, the Kings have lost five straight, earning just two points (0-3-2) in that span.
Scoring has been an issue for the Kings all season. They are 23rd in the league by averaging 2.8 goals per game. The power-play units are the third-worst, converting on just 15 percent of their opportunities this season.
The Kings went without scoring on the man advantage in the nine games (0-for-14) leading up to the 4 Nations Face-Off break last month. In the seven games since, they’ve scored on three of 17 chances.
To address that issue, the team acquired forward Andrei Kuzmenko from the Philadelphia Flyers just before Friday’s trade deadline.
After scoring 39 goals in 81 games for Vancouver in the 2022-23 season, the Russian has seen his production taper severely. He had 22 goals last season in splitting time with Vancouver and Calgary. This season, he has only six in 44 games between the Flames and Flyers. Of his 67 career goals, 26 have been on the power play.
Kings general manager Rob Blake told reporters after the trade deadline that Kuzmenko’s skills on the power play were a main reason for acquiring him.
“That’s one of the specialties with his shot. … With his scoring ability, (we) maybe get a different look to our power play and give us a different offensive feel to that,” Blake said. “You know, we tried some other players, but that is what he does.”
Unlike the Kings, the Blues stood pat at the deadline. There were reports the team sought to trade veteran center Brayden Schenn, the team’s captain. TSN reported Schenn declined to waive his no-trade clause to close a deal that would have sent him to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The speculation did not affect his performance on the ice.
After seeing his five-game point streak halted on Wednesday, he matched his season high with two goals in Friday’s 4-3 victory against the Anaheim Ducks. Schenn, 33, has 40 points (14 goals, 26 assists) this season.
“What a true pro, right? What a great leader,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery told reporters after Friday’s win. “Just comes out and leads us the right way. There’s so many rumors swirling with the trade deadline, and he just keeps playing, keeps leading us. That’s why he’s our captain.”
–Field Level Media
