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The Kings come into tonight's tilt in 6th place in the West, and third in the Pacific with 85 points. Not a lot has changed for L.A. since their visit to the United Center last week. Anze Kopitar is still a machine even though he's fallen off the league's scoring leaderboard, Dustin Brown is going to hit everything in sight, Drew Doughty is making a legitimate run at being a Norris Trophy finalist, and Jonathan Quick will almost assuredly get the start in net. Terry Murray's crew has been touch-and-go since the Olympic break, going 3-3-1 since the real games resumed. We know this team can play both up-tempo or gritty and has the depth of personnel for both styles. And oh yeah, they have arguably the worst fucking goal song in the league, right up there with Nashville.

And then there's our battered, bruised, and depleted Men of Four Feathers. In talking with Sam today, both he and I expect them to come out with a snarl akin to that of a wolverine who has been fed a kilo of angel dust (better Faith No More album, by the way). All of the talk to the media after the game seemed to indicate that the Hawks are mad as hell and not going to take this anymore, and Duncan Keith had some particularly choice words on the subject, suggesting that the Hawks may have to start getting dirty themselves. We'll see how that works out for them, but fully expect that the Hawk forwards are going to try to get close enough to Jon Quick to find out what scent of Febreeze the equipment managers use on his gear. And though recently the results haven't gone their way, the Hawks have been putting up 40 shots a game pretty consistently, so it's not all gloom and doom. What the lineup will consist of is really anyone's guess at this point, so I'm not even going to speculate, but Antti Niemi will be getting the start in net. Three points out of the next four and no further injuries would keep this brief road trip from being an unmitigated disaster. With any damn luck that begins tonight. Let's Go Hawks.

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Game Time: 9:00 Central
TV on the Radio:  WGN on WGN
QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!:  Anaheim Calling, Battle of California

So I've recovered from my Flamingo injury (or whatever else you come up with) in time to get back here and get the preview today.  Sorry about that everyone...

Tonight will open a nice short jaunt out west to play the usual California suspects only with the Coyotes thrown in to replace the Sharks just for good measure.  First up for the Hawks are the Pacific cellar dwelling Anaheim Ducks.  Although the Ducks are having a fairly miserable season this year, they've got the edge in the season series with the Hawks so far winning two of three times they've met. 

Backstopping the Ducks tonight is likely to be an emerging Hawks killer - Jonas Hiller.  Hiller is a wall when he plays against the Hawks, posting an unreal .942 SV% and a 1.42 GAA.  The only team he's proven to be better against in multiple match ups is Nashville.  However, Hiller seems to have left it all in Vancouver during the Olympics.  Since returning from the break he's posted a record of 1-4-1.  He did pick up his first win against San Jose on Sunday and a solid reason for his poor record is the overall crappiness of the Ducks.  In two of his losses, the Ducks failed to light the lamp a single time. 

As we've seen for the past two years now, the Ducks will be bringing the one line they do possess and hoping it's enough to win.  The bad news, their scoring line is a more than a little banged up.  Teemu Selanne injured his shoulder on Sunday and Ryan Getzlaf aggravated an injury he first hurt before the Olympics.  They're both listing themselves as "likely" for tonight but they're likely not to be at 100%.  Selanne does need only one more goal to reach 600 lifetime goals... however only about 104 have come from him actually doing any work, the rest have all just been annoying as fuck for opposing fans. 

We'll of course be seeing how the Hawks look without Brian Campbell for the first time since he signed his monster contract and no one actually feels good about it.  Kim Johnsson didn't skate yesterday and as of this writing I haven't seen anything about the likeilhood of him playing tonight.  Panda did skate with the team yesterday so lets hope he re-joins the team.  It'll be Antti Niemi in net tonight as Cristobal Huet has gone down with the flu.. so lets hope he gets some quality baguettes or whatever it is that the French do to combat illness.  The Blackhawks are downright awful playing the Honda Center as well - I believe their record is something around 3-323-4.. but don't quote me on that.

And finally - Happy St. Patrick's Day.  Remember that green beer is for amateurs.

UPDATE: Corey Crawford will be starting in net tonight. Lordy. Good thing everyone's going to be drinking anyway.

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Game Time: 7:30 Central
TV/Radio:  CSN/WGN
Still Missing the Purple and Gold: Jewels From The Crown, Battle of California

In our first podcast, for some reason (read: alcohol) I mentioned that no one on the Kings roster really scared me.  Look no further than that for proof that I'm an idiot.  Anze Kopitar might not be in the race for the scoring title like he was at the start of the year but he's still a monster.  If you weren't in love with Drew Doughty before the Olympics, chances you are now.  The Kings are a sneaky good team that will certainly be a candidate for an upset in the first round of the playoffs - unless of course they end up catching the Coyotes and grabbing the 4th spot. 

This isn't really a team you want to see when you have the question mark that currently is the Blackhawks goalie.  Antti Niemi will get the start and he did have some success against the Kings the only time he faced them.. of course that was last year when the Kings were a pretty different team.  The Kings are coming off a dismantling of the Blue Jackets on Monday where their power play scored on half the opportunities they were given and their defense held the BJs to just 11 shots, not even the Hawks at their best came close to that so far this season. 

If we see the sloppy Hawks defensive play continue into this game, the Kings aren't a team that will miss many of their chances.  While only a few of their players will really stand out, none are really a glaring weakness.  Jonathan Quick may only be 2-4-0 against the Hawks in his career so far but he's posting an impressive .916 SV% against the boys in red. 

Not exactly what you want to see for a team that's facing some adversity lately, is it?  As I mentioned in the post below though, the Hawks will be getting some very welcomed energy from the return of Adam Burish tonight.  It's no surprise that he's already running his mouth about getting out there and hitting people - and it's of less surprise that we're glad to hear it.  The Kings do have a goon in Raitis Ivanans who could likely send Burish back on the IR if they chose to drop the gloves so Burish should keep his head up if the Kings choose to dress this neanderthal... but he hasn't played since the second of this month so who knows if he'll skate today.  Wayne Simmonds is the Kings next leading player and while he probably could still mop the floor with Burish, they're at least in the same weight class. 

As usual, Sam and his cronies will be outside the UC selling the Committed Indian before the game and you have no excuses not to buy one.  If you're not going to the game - check out the links on the left where you can buy an electronic copy for today's issues.

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And so we've come to yet another milepost on the season, the last game prior to the two-week long Olympic break. There are obviously a lot of Hawks that need the break, and unfortunately not all of those players are going to get it (cough Keith, Seabrook cough), as they will be in Vancouver representing their countries. But first and foremost, today's game has to be played, after which everyone can hop in their limos, drink their Kokanee, and take their shirts off, and do so to their heart's content until March 2nd.

The Hawks visit the Columbus Blue Jackets for today's matinee, and since the two last did battle on January 16th, the Jackets have fired coach/barge Ken Hitchcock, and in doing so jettisoned his torturous brand of hockey.  Since Claude Noel has taken over, the Jackets won three straight before being downed most recently by the Canucks. The latter two wins were Steve Mason shutouts, and the first, Mason only allowed one goal. It stands to reason that Hitch's departure has given the sophomore netminder a bit of a spark. This could just be a blip on the radar, as most times a coaching change leads to a bit of a surge,  but should the Jackets claw their way back to respectability in the Western Conference, it could lead to a permanent gig for Noel. Leading the way offensively is still captain Rick Nash with 27G-29A-56P, giving him one of his most balanced outputs ever. Antoine Vermette and Kristian Huselius are also having respectable years, but their abhorrent +/-'s (-5 and -12 respectively) exhibit just how difficult things have been in Columbus. While this team has been bad basically from top to bottom of the roster, they still gave the Hawks a game in the last tilt, and cannot be taken lightly.

As for the Men of Four Feathers, they come into this afternoon's game after a shoot out win over Atlanta at the UC last night. Marian Hossa took a hard check from Colby Armstrong, and will not play, Jake Dowell has been recalled from Rockford to take his roster spot. Cristobal Huet should start this afternoon as well, after three straight starts and three straight wins from Antti Niemi, who was only impressive in the first of the three (in spite of his shoot out performances in the latter two). Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith continue to be an adventure the caliber of King's Quest V in their own zone, and it seems unlikely that they'll have rectified that in the last 18 hours. Here's hoping they get their collective shit together over the Olympics, but again, the likelihood of that is debatable.  All is not storm clouds in Blackhawk Nation, however. Since being reunitied, the top line of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Patrick Sharp has been absolutely sick- I think I've counted on one hand in three games where the opposition has separated them from the puck. Newly acquired defensman Kim Johnsson also seems to be a good fit with the Hawks style, already getting some power play time last night. One last 60 minute effort before SPRING BREAK is all we're looking for here boys. Send it off on a good note. Let's Go Hawks.