Winless Kings Host a Bruins Team Living on Borrowed Chances
Los Angeles keeps outshooting opponents without results, while Boston arrives on the back end of a back-to-back riding a win streak.
Written before the game
The standings say this is a mismatch. The underlying play says it is much closer than that.
Boston arrives atop the Atlantic at 6-2-0 with four straight wins and a +12 goal differential. Yet the Bruins have routinely been out-chanced. Across eight games they have allowed more expected goals (3.25 a night, a measure of how dangerous the chances were) than they have created (3.04). They have also been outshot on attempts, roughly 59 against to 52 for. That is a team winning on finishing and goaltending, not on territory.
Los Angeles is the mirror image. The Kings are 0-3-2, last in the West, with a -10 goal differential. Even so, they have generated about 63 shot attempts a night while allowing 52, and have given up fewer expected goals (2.70) than they have created (2.93). By the quality of their chances, the Kings have been the better team. The pucks just have not gone in.
The Kings went 0-2-0 at home before this game. Boston is playing the second night of a back-to-back, which gives Los Angeles a chance to keep pushing play late against tired legs.
If the Kings' chances finally start turning into goals, this is the kind of night it happens. If not, Boston adds two more points it may not have fully earned on the run of play.