Pre-game thoughts: Jackets look to grab 2 points from LA

The Kings are up next for the Jackets. The second stop on their four game road trip and 2nd game in as many nights.

The Kings possess the worst record in the NHL with a 15-24-2 record. They have however won their past 3 games and are on a roll. This game will certainly not be a cake walk for the Jackets...what games are right?

Keys to lighting em up

Just let me get this out of the way right away. S-C-O-R-E * F-I-R-S-T.....that's it...don't ask me why that is but if we score first we win...if they score first we might as well turn off the tube.

Jackets 3rd ranked PK versus Kings 4th ranked PP. Whomever wins this game within the game will win the game.

Jackets need to limit their penalties for obvious reasons.

Of course it also wouldn't hurt if the Jackets could score more than 1 goal and get one or two off their PP as well.

Norrena in nets tonight. He'll have to be sharp and our best PKer. I like Hitch's decision to start him tonight. I'm not a big fan of playing goalies on back to backs and given the time change and the amount of shots PL faced last night, its a good move.

Watch Kopitar and Brown. Kopitar leads the Kings' with points (a guy taken after Brule - ouch) and Brown leads them in goals with 19. These guys are dangerous, especially on the PP.

Come out with same energy as Anaheim. Its the tail end of a back to back and after a strong gritty performance against the Ducks that didn't yield any results the Jackets have to dig down deep and come out with that same energy tonight...only this time, figure out how to score.

Take advantage of weak LA defense. They have given up the most goals in the Western Conference with 133 -- no excuse to only score 1 or 2 tonight. Need to bury a bunch tonight.

**************************

Another late start tonight, this time at 10:30. Will be interesting to see how this team responds after the Anaheim loss. The Jackets are 2-0 against LA so far this season so they'll be looking to build on that while the Kings will most certainly be using that as motivation to stretch their streak to 4.

A win could go a long way towards making this 4 game road trip successfull.

GO JACKETS!

-LTL