Morning Skate: May 15

The Morning After:

Yesterday’s results:

Rangers 3, Devils 0

RLD 3 stars of the night:

1. Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (21 saves, shutout)

2. Dan Girardi, NYR (1 goal, 1 assist, 5 blocked shots)

3. Marc Staal, NYR (24:55 TOI, 5 blocked shots)

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Tonight’s slate:

Kings @ Coyotes, 9:00 ET, Game 2

#8 Los Angeles Kings @ #3 Phoenix Coyotes

Game 2… 9:00 ET… TV: NBC Sports Network, TSN

Series: 1-0 Kings

Players to watch:
LA-      Slava Voynov

The trade for Jeff Carter – which saw Jack Johnson go to Columbus – has allowed Voynov emerge as one of the top young defensemen in the NHL.  He had an assist and six shots in Game 1.

PHX-   Radim Vrbata

The Coyotes need more from Vrbata, who has just two goals this postseason.  Dave Tippett’s club is better when Vrbata is contributing.  They need his offensive skills to help solve Quick.

Projected starting goaltenders:

LA-      Jonathan Quick (Playoff stats: 9-1, 1.60 GAA)

PHX-   Mike Smith (Playoff stats: 8-4, 1.87 GAA)

Injury report:

LA-      Kyle Clifford and Simon Gagne (concussion, out), Scott Parse (hip, out)

PHX-   Adrian Aucoin (undisclosed, questionable)

Game thoughts:

In Game 1, the Kings continued their road dominance with a 3-2 win.  In the process they became the first team to ever win its first six road playoff games.  Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar took over and carried the Kings to a 1-0 series lead.

Tonight in Game 2, the Coyotes will need to find an answer for Brown, Kopitar and the red-hot Kings.  The Coyotes are always a better team when playing with the lead, something they never had in the series opener.  It will be interesting to see how they deal with this challenge, as this is the first time this spring that they have trailed in a series.

I would expect tonight’s contest to be a lot like the one on Sunday – tightly-contested and decided in the third period.  I foresee this being a long series, but only if the Coyotes can find a win to stop the Kings’ mojo tonight.  If not, Quick and company will once again make this a ‘quick’ series.  Still, I like Phoenix in this one.

Prediction: Coyotes 2, Kings 1

Video of the day:

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