Last year, the Kings made it to March before Murray put that line together. The Kings had the same problem then, too; Kopitar was slumping a little, Stoll & Handzus were underwhelming, and the Kings as a whole weren't scoring. The idea is to boost secondary scoring while hoping Kopitar will keep the other team anxious. It's not necessarily a great idea but that's the idea nonetheless.

***

Meanwhile, Andrei Loktionov didn't get a point in the last game so he gets benched. I mean, he wasn't on the ice for a goal and he had 2 takeaways from solid backchecking but Goddammit, you need to be better than that to play for Terry Murray! Now get out there, Kevin Westgarth, and show him how it's- oh wait, Westgarth just fell down.

Prediction: Kings win, 3-1. Goals by Brown, Simmonds and Johnson.