Kings stay on the road to face Bruins (Dec 18, 2016)
BOSTON -- The Los Angeles Kings, spending most of December on the road, bring their traveling road show into Boston for a Sunday matinee.
And when they hit the ice for fourth game of a nine-game journey, they will face a Bruins team missing its leading goal scorer.
David Pastrnak, the 20-year-old who has carried the Boston offense this season, underwent right elbow surgery for the removal of an olecranon bursa on Friday. He is officially listed as day to day and expected to be out at least two games. But teammate David Backes missed five games earlier this season with the same surgery.
"It's not a fun little procedure he's going through," Backes said, "but he's in the hands of great doctors and hopefully he'll be back even sooner than I was."
Pastrnak has only one goal in the last four games, but six in the last seven and his 19, four more than all of last season, are more than twice anyone else on the roster.
He is also a team-best plus-15 and is second in the NHL to Sidney Crosby in goals.
"It's never easy when you hear that kind of news for one of your better players this year, so those are challenges you have to face and get through," coach Claude Julien said Saturday. "We'll certainly do our best to get some wins here without him."
Peter Budaj, the workhorse Kings goalie with Jonathan Quick expected to be out until mid-February, shut down Sidney Crosby and the high-scoring Penguins in a 1-0 overtime victory on Friday night, shouldn't have as much trouble with the offensively challenged Bruins without Pastrnak. Boston has scored two goals or less in 21 of its 32 games.
In Pittsburgh, Budaj, pulled from his previous start in Buffalo in the first game of the trip, made 39 saves in ending the Penguins' seven-game winning streak.
"That's the most important thing is to win," said Budaj, who notched his third shutout of the season after Quick was lost in the opener. "The shutout is like the cherry on the cake. It feels great."
The Bruins have lost five of their last six, getting at least one point in three of the six. They have lost three in a row at home, where they are 7-8 this season -- and it was poor play on home ice that cost Boston a playoff berth for a second straight season last year.
The Bruins won in overtime in Montreal on Monday night, then lost in OT at Pittsburgh on Wednesday, then lost at home to Anaheim in the third game in four nights.
And the Kings went into Pittsburgh Friday and won.
"Circle the wagons and stick together. That's what we do," LA coach Darryl Sutter said.
Saturday marked the fifth anniversary of Sutter, winner of two Stanley Cups, agreeing to coach the Kings.
"Dean (GM Lombardi) had called me a couple times just to see if I was interested in coaching again, not implying anything. And we talked off and on anyways about different things," Sutter told the LA Times. "My intent always was, I'd sort of left my window open, but there were only three or four places I'd go because I wasn't going just to coach somewhere again."
So he left his Viking, Alberta, farm for the job and is still there.
The Kings opened this trip with a 6-3 loss at Buffalo and then won 4-1 in the finale at Joe Louis Arena before winning Friday. They have a mandatory day off Monday, visit Columbus on Tuesday and still have to go to Nashville, Dallas, Vancouver and Edmonton before finally playing at home Dec. 31.
The Bruins, who had to benefit from two days without a game, host the New York Islanders on Tuesday before a four-game trip and a Dec. 31 return home. The road, however, isn't scary for this Bruins team, which is 9-5-3 away from home.
The Kings won both meetings between the teams last season.
