Happy Early 23rd Birthday Marc-Andre Cliche! (March 23rd) 
Los Angeles Kings (41-24-5) 87 pts VS. 
Colorado Avalanche (40-25-6) 86 pts Game Time: 7:30 PM PST | 10:30 PM EST
Location: Staples Center | Los Angeles, CA
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Night - Only available for people who purchased the ticket package.
- Season Ticket Holders are left in the dust.
- If you already purchased individual tickets before this was announced, you're out of luck as well. 
TV Broadcast: Home Team: FS-W (HD)
Away Team: ALT (HD)
Radio Broadcast: KTLK AM 1150
XM Radio Channel: XM 206
Online Radio broadcast stream: KTLK Online Stream Remember, DO NOT post links to Live Game Streams in the GDT or on LGK. 
NHL Scores Yahoo NHL Scoreboard CBS Sportsline NHL Scoreboard Fox Sports Scoreboard NHL.com Game Preview Fox Game Trax 
LetsGoKings.com LA Kings News LA Times: Kings News Page LA Daily News: Kings News Page TSN: Kings Page CBS Sportsline: Kings Page LA Kings Insider - Rich Hammond 
Avalanche @ Kings Game Notes Last 10: Colorado 5-5-0; Los Angeles 5-4-1.
Season series: This is the second of four meetings between the teams. They last met on Feb. 13, when the Kings skated away with a 3-0 victory at the Staples Center. Jonathan Quick made 22 saves for the shutout.
Big story: They'll likely still get in, but the Kings and Avalanche are no longer locks to reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Los Angeles enters Monday's action with 87 points -- just six ahead of the No. 9 Calgary Flames, while Colorado is just five ahead.
Team Scope:
Avalanche: Colorado hit a bump in the road on Sunday night, as it dropped a 5-2 decision in Anaheim in a game that was overshadowed by Teemu Selanne's 600th NHL goal. The Avalanche have lost two in a row.
"Unfortunately it was against us — but, yes, I'm happy for him," Colorado defenseman Ruslan Salei said. "It's a huge milestone. I want to congratulate him — and I did on the ice."
Kings: Quick saved the day for the Kings on Saturday, when he stopped all 26 shots he faced in a 1-0 win against the New York Islanders at the Staples Center. Quick preserved the lead with eight seconds remaining, when he denied Kyle Okposo's one-timer from point-blank range.
"It was a great effort by Quick," Kings coach
Terry Murray said. "He made a save at the end of the game, with about 10 seconds left, on a little pass from behind the net, to Okposo, I think it was. He gave us a good game. We had four penalty kills. They had a lot of time in our zone. The penalty killing is largely due to the success of the goaltender, and he was very alert, sharp. A good bounce-back game."
Who's hot: Avs forward Chris Stewart has a seven-game points streak. He has six goals and six assists during that span. … Kings forward Brad Richardson scored the game's lone tally on Saturday. It snapped a four-game drought.
Stat pack: Paul Stastny was held scoreless on Sunday for the first time since the NHL returned from the Olympics. Stastny, who represented Team USA in Vancouver, had at least one point in nine straight contests, during which time he had five goals and 11 assists. It was the longest streak by an Avalanche player this season.
Puck drop: "It was a very important win. It's a win that is very hard to come by tonight, because this is a game you're supposed to win as a team, and those are the hardest kinds of games to win. But it's two points. Everybody keeps winning in this conference. I've been saying this right from the start of the year, that it's going to be a race right down to the very end. We're going to get into the final six games of April and they're all going to have great meaning in this conference." -- Kings coach
Terry Murray 
Some of the following quotes are provided by Rich Hammond of the LA Kings Insider. For more quotes, please visit his blog.
"I'm set,"
Murray said, referring to line combinations, "but it's up to all those guys on those lines to hold their position. I have lines. I know what I want, and I put players in those positions. But again, we have responsibilities as players, whenever we're out there, to do the right thing and to play with what's needed to be done in order to win games, to execute. I know what I want to get to, for line combinations. I don't like changing lines. I have had lines together for pretty much the whole year, with other teams. Like (Anze) Kopitar's line at the start of the year. They started to play and they had great chemistry. A lot of good play was happening, and you just stay with it as long as they keep playing that way."
"This isn't a touchy-feel game at this time of the year,"
Murray said. "I'm not worried about that. It's about execution. It's about winning the game. In Fro's case in particular, on the penalty kill that he was out there for, the puck came to him three times on the boards, around the boards, to his side of the ice, and there needs to be more battle and compete. That's a desperation kind of a situation. In the one-goal games, everything matters, every play, every pass, every read really matters. The other part of it, with Willy being a veteran guy, he's still working his way back to be at top speed, and I have awareness to that. I loved his effort last night. He's trying to work on the skill part of his game. He showed some really good things but, again, I needed to shut that game down and I went with the people that could."
"That's the part of the game, at this time of the year, that you have to be real good at, in my mind,"
Murray said. "It becomes a half-ice game, almost, as you get to the latter part of the season, through the playoffs. Everyone is structured so compact through the middle of the ice and into the D zone that, when you do find a way to get the goal, you know that with the way the game is going, you're probably not going to end up with two, three, four goals. So you have to find a way to play the right way. That's an important part of the game all the time, but it's always highlighted at this time of the year."
"We've played them one time, and here we are in March already, near the end of March,"
Murray said. "It's pretty amazing. But it's an interesting finish to the schedule, when you look at the league. It always narrows it down to division and conference play, certainly division play. A two-game series here, right now, is pretty exciting."
"We had 60 minutes,’’ Kings captain
Dustin Brown said. "That's the first time we've had 60 minutes in a while. It was a huge win at a huge time in the season for us. The Islanders played a good game. It was a tight game. I think all the games, from here on out, are going to be like that. We just have to find that rhythm.’’
"I think it's just being real detailed,’’
Quick said. "Everyone is competing, everyone is battling. We're killing off a lot of time down in their zone. Richie, today, among a few other guys, just spent some time in the corners of their zone, and that really helps out. We're blocking shots, and the PK is really playing well right now.''
"Simmer made a great play,’’
Richardson said. "He kind of waited for the guy to swing away from me. I just tried to shoot as quick as possible.’’
"Just getting two points from this game was huge,’’
Brown said. "We needed a win. I think it's important for us, as a group in here, to realize, though, that it's just one game. We needed it bad, but it's done and over now. It's just kind of the same thing with the game against Chicago. It's done and over, and we have to forget about it. We don't have time to sit there and feel good about ourselves.’’
Los Angeles Kings (subject to change) 
Frozen moment from the previous game. Colorado Avalanche (subject to change)
#88 Mueller - #9 Duchene - #23 Hejduk
#39 Galiardi - #26 Stastny - #25 Stewart
#32 Porter - #37 O'Reilly - #40 Svatos
#55 Mcleod - #15 Hendricks - #16 Tucker
#10 Cumiskey - #52 Foote
#27 Quincey - #22 Hannan
#4 Liles - #24 Salei
#41 Anderson
#31 Budaj
Los Angeles Kings
Andrei Loktionov (Dislocated shoulder on 11/25/09) IR
Colorado Avalanche
David Jones (Torn left ACL on 11/29/09) IR
David Koci (Broken right hand on 02/09/10) IR
Ryan Wilson (Mild concussion on 03/21/10) day-to-day
Stephane Yelle (Leg injury on 03/21/10) day-to-day
Brandon Yip (Separated shoulder on 03/02/10) IR
Legend:
OT: Overtime
SO: Shootout
02/13/10 - Avalanche @ Kings (Kings win 3-0)
Kings All-Time Record against Colorado (50-43-9) All-time Series Results 
Leading Scorers: Forwards: 
Kopitar, LA - 71 points (32 G, 39 A, +5) | Stastny, COL - 70 points (17 G, 53 A, +7)
Defensemen: 
Doughty, LA - 52 points (13 G, 39 A, +17) | Liles, COL - 28 points (5 G, 23 A, -2)
Probable Starters: (subject to change) 
Quick, LA - 63 GP Record: 38-21-4 GAA 2.46 SV% .911 | Anderson, COL - 62 GP Record: 35-21-5 GAA 2.51 SV% .922
Players you might want to keep an eye on: 
Alexander Frolov, LA - 46 points (16 G, 30 A, -6) | Matt Duchene, COL - 49 points (23 G, 26 A, +3)
Former King: 
Kyle Quincey - 26 points (5 G, 21 A, +8)
Goals Per Game:
LA – 2.83 (9th in NHL)
COL – 2.93 (7th in NHL) Goals Against Average: LA – 2.59 (10th in NHL)
COL – 2.61 (11th in NHL)
Power Play %: LA – 20.3 (6th in NHL)
COL – 18.6 (13th in NHL)
Penalty Kill %:
LA – 81.7 (T-17th in NHL)
COL – 82.0 (T-15th in NHL) Shots Per Game: LA – 28.6 (25th in NHL)
COL – 27.1 (30th in NHL)
Shots Against Per Game: LA – 27.8 (3rd in NHL)
COL – 32.2 (T-25th in NHL)
(As of 03/22/10) Pacific Division Standings:
1. Phoenix Coyotes (46-22-5) 97 pts
2. San Jose Sharks (43-19-10) 96 pts
3.
Los Angeles Kings (41-24-5) 87 pts
4. Anaheim Ducks (34-29-8) 76 pts
5. Dallas Stars (31-27-14) 76 pts
Western Conference Standings:
1 Blackhawks 97
2 Coyotes 97
3 Canucks 92
4 Sharks 96
5 Predators 89
6 Kings 87 7 Avalanche 86
8 Red Wings 83
------------------
9 Flames 81
10 Blues 77
11 Ducks 76
12 Wild 76
13 Stars 76
14 Blue Jackets 70
15 Oilers 53
Penguins @
Red Wings 4:00 PM PST | 7:00 PM EST
Senators @ Canadiens 4:30 PM PST | 7:30 PM EST
**(Some images and sources are courtesy of
RinkRat,
NHL.com,
lakings.com,
TSN.ca,
gettyimages.com,
ESPN.com and
Yahoo.com)**
Special thanks to the following people:
KingsWord for providing a ton of images.
RinkRat for allowing me to use the images he shoots.
Blueline for his format and images.
Len-Det64 for providing additional images.
Watti for some GDT images + Photoshop tutorial.
TooCool
***GDT - Colorado Avalanche @ Los Angeles Kings - 03/22/10*** (7:30 PM) 
Linear Mode
