Happy 28th Birthday Erik Ersberg! (March 8th) Happy 20th Birthday to Brandon Kozun! (March 8th) Happy 20th Birthday to Colten Teubert! (March 8th) 
Los Angeles Kings (38-22-4) 80 pts VS. 
Columbus Blue Jackets (25-29-11) 61 pts Game Time: 7:30 PM PST | 10:30 PM EST
Location: Staples Center | Los Angeles, CA
TV Broadcast: Home Team: FS-W (HD)
Away Team: FS-O (HD)
Radio Broadcast: KTLK AM 1150
XM Radio Channel: XM 205
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 
Blue Jackets @ Kings Game Notes Last 10: Columbus 4-4-2; Los Angeles 6-3-1.
Season series: Fourth and final meeting of the regular season. The home team has won all three matchups to this point.
(The NHL.com Staff Writer did not do his research.) Anze Kopitar scored twice for the Kings in each of their victories. Antoine Vermette leads the Blue Jackets with two goals. Jonathan Quick and Steve Mason have been the goaltenders in all three games.
Big story: There is little doubt Los Angeles is on its way to a postseason berth for the first time since 2002, but the Kings have a fight going with another resurgent team, Pacific Division neighbor Phoenix, for the fourth seed in the Western Conference and home ice in the first round. The Coyotes lead by three points after they shut out the Ducks on Saturday and the Kings were dropped by the Canadiens.
Team Scope:
Blue Jackets: Mason has had his share of struggles in his sophomore season, but he was the last guy who could be blamed in a 2-1 Columbus loss to San Jose on Saturday. Mason was brilliant in stopping 42 shots and giving the Blue Jackets a fighting chance at two points. Andrew Murray staked them to a narrow lead after two periods, but the Sharks rallied in the third for the second game in a row, Joe Pavelski netting the winner with 4:40 remaining.
"A first-place team, they're there for a reason," Mason said. "They never gave up and it showed. Any time you lose a game when you have the lead going into the third, it's disappointing."
Kings: Few things deflate a team more than allowing a goal early or late in a period. Los Angeles was behind the eight ball right off the bat Saturday when Brian Gionta scored for Montreal just 22 seconds after the opening faceoff. Still trailing by a goal entering the third, the Kings fell behind 3-1 when Benoit Pouliot struck at 36 seconds. Those goals proved crucial in a 4-2 loss to the Canadiens.
"The start clearly wasn't good. Montreal scored on the first shift," said
Kopitar, who scored his 30th goal of the season. "By the end of the first period we started to dictate play a bit more but in the second period we had some power-play opportunities that we didn't capitalize on. They also came back and scored a shorthanded goal, which was frustrating. I don't know what it is. We're not going to try to find excuses for this, but we need to get better."
Who's hot: Murray has goals in consecutive games for the Blue Jackets after not having one in 29 games. … Kopitar has 11 goals and 10 assists in his last 15 games for the Kings. Michal Handzus has four goals and six assists in his last 11 games, while Ryan Smyth has four goals and five assists in his last 10 games.
Stat pack: The Blue Jackets' winning percentage of .655 when leading after two periods is by far the lowest in the League. Conversely, the Kings are one of only two teams not to have lost this season when leading after two. The Sabres are the other.
Puck drop: Fredrik Modin, who scored his first goal with the Kings on Saturday, will face his former teammates on Monday. Injuries limited Modin to 176 games over parts of four seasons with the Blue Jackets. He scored 22 goals in the 2006-07 season but just 17 after that before he was dealt.
Some of the following quotes are provided by Rich Hammond of the LA Kings Insider. For more quotes, please visit his blog.
"This was a pretty good effort, we just unfortunately gave the puck away at the wrong time," Kings head coach
Terry Murray said. "The first goal, third goal, the second goal; it’s just some management of the puck, making plays, holding onto it, we don’t score at critical times on our power play. We have four power play opportunities through the end of the second period which is critical, you take advantage of it and we don’t.”
“In today’s game you need to capitalize on special teams, and we didn’t do that,” Kings forward
Ryan Smyth said. “We need to get back to the basics— pressing and getting the puck to the net. We just needed to simplify the game a bit. We need to play more desperate. We had to play catch-up, and we didn’t give a good enough push throughout the game. But give them credit. They played well.”
“The Montreal Canadiens are a very desperate hockey club,”
Murray said. “They’re on the bubble, so you’ve got to recognize that and know that the intensity is going to be high. They showed it in the first shift, and we weren’t ready to match it.”
Los Angeles Kings (subject to change) 
Frozen moment from the previous game. Columbus Blue Jackets (subject to change)
#17 Murray - #50 Vermette - #61 Nash
#18 Umberger - #16 Brassard - #93 Voracek
#11 Clark - #26 Pahlsson - #15 Dorsett
#4 Paetsch - #12 Blunden - #40 Boll
#10 Russell - #22 Commodore
#8 Hejda - #3 Methot
#51 Tyutin - #6 Stralman
#1 Mason
#32 Garon
Los Angeles Kings
Andrei Loktionov (Dislocated shoulder on 11/25/09) IR
Justin Williams (Broken right leg/ankle on 12/26/09) IR
Columbus Blue Jackets
Rostislav Klesla (Torn groin on 12/01/09) IR
Legend:
OT: Overtime
SO: Shootout
01/28/10 - Kings @ Blue Jackets (Kings win 4-1)
10/25/09 - Blue Jackets @ Kings (Kings win 6-2)
10/17/09 - Kings @ Blue Jackets (Blue Jackets win 4-1)
Kings All-Time Record against Columbus (17-14-4) All-time Series Results 
Leading Scorers: Forwards: 
Kopitar, LA - 67 points (30 G, 37 A, +6) | Nash, CBJ - 57 points (28 G, 29 A, -7)
Defensemen: 
Doughty, LA - 49 points (12 G, 37 A, +15) | Stralman, CBJ - 29 points (6 G, 23 A, -13)
Probable Starters: (subject to change) 
Quick, LA - 58 GP Record: 36-19-3 GAA 2.52 SV% .908 | Mason, CBJ - 46 GP Record: 16-20-7 GAA 3.08 SV% .899
Players you might want to keep an eye on: 
Fredrik Modin, LA - 7 points (3 G, 4 A, -6) | Jakub Voracek, CBJ - 36 points (9 G, 27 A, -8)
Former King: 
Mathieu Garon - 28 GP Record: 9-9-4 GAA 2.90 SV% .900
Goals Per Game: LA – 2.91 (8th in NHL)
CBJ – 2.58 (20th in NHL)
Goals Against Average: LA – 2.67 (T-11th in NHL)
CBJ – 3.08 (26th in NHL)
Power Play %:
LA – 19.3 (T-9th in NHL)
CBJ – 19.3 (T-9th in NHL)
Penalty Kill %:
LA – 80.0 (T-22nd in NHL)
CBJ – 82.4 (13th in NHL) Shots Per Game:
LA – 28.9 (25th in NHL)
CBJ – 29.1 (T-22nd in NHL) Shots Against Per Game: LA – 27.6 (3rd in NHL)
CBJ – 30.3 (16th in NHL)
(As of 03/08/10) Pacific Division Standings:
1. San Jose Sharks (42-14-9) 93 pts
2. Phoenix Coyotes (39-22-5) 83 pts
3.
Los Angeles Kings (38-22-4) 80 pts
4. Dallas Stars (28-24-12) 68 pts
5. Anaheim Ducks (30-27-8) 68 pts
Western Conference Standings:
1 Sharks 93
2 Blackhawks 91
3 Canucks 82
4 Coyotes 83
5 Kings 80
6 Avalanche 80
7 Predators 75
8 Red Wings 74
------------------
9 Flames 73
10 Blues 69
11 Stars 68
12 Ducks 68
13 Wild 67
14 Blue Jackets 61
15 Oilers 48
Stars @ Capitals 4:00 PM PST | 7:00 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 - Columbus Blue Jackets @ Los Angeles Kings - 03/08/10*** (7:30 PM) 
Linear Mode
