The bad news: the Penguins are 11-12-4 vs. Western Conference teams.
The good news: After tonight's game against the Kings, they will have just two more regular season games against teams from the West (March 5 vs. the Flames and March 11 vs. the Stars).
The better news: The Penguins have won nine straight at home, where they have outscored opponents 47-25, and look to make it ten when they play host to Los Angeles.
The Penguins are expecting a low-scoring game perhaps one decided by a one goal. And that's something that Mike Sullivan says they better get used to heading closer toward the playoffs.
"L.A. is team that I think is hard to play against," Sullivan said. "They're another one of those teams that plays stingy defense.
"They make you work for your opportunities. It's going to be another one of those type of games where we're going to have to have an element of patience to our game. We don't try to force things if we don't get as many opportunities as we'd like. We have to find a comfort level in playing those games whether it be a low-scoring game or a one-goal game."
Here are tonight's three keys to victory:
1. Keep their composure.
The last time the Penguins faced the Kings, they scored a 3-1 win at the Staples Center, the lone victory on their three-game California road trip last month.
You might also recall that this was the game in which Evgeni Malkin was fined $5,000 for spearing Los Angeles' Dustin Brown in the groin. It was the first time that Malkin had faced supplemental discipline in his career.
It was also the game that Brown was penalized for a five-minute boarding major -- and a subsequent $10,000 fine -- for crosschecking a prone Justin Schultz into the boards later in the game (Schultz was not injured):
Well, Brown has since been suspended for an unrelated incident. On Tuesday he sat out the Kings' 7-3 loss to the Hurricanes in Carolina, serving a one-game suspension for kneeing the Lightning's Mikhail Sergachev three nights earlier.
It was the second time that Brown has been suspended in his 14-year-career. He served a two game ban in April of 2013 for elbowing Minnesota's Jason Pominville in the head.
Brown is a talented (16 goals, 22 assists), hard-nosed player who plays in the gray areas and can get under opponents' skin. The Penguins need to simply play their game and avoid any extra-curricular penalties.
Jamie Oleksiak doesn't expect there to be any carryover, but given that the Kings are coming off a tough loss, he knows they will be desperate.
"I'm sure they're going to be coming our pretty hard too, w'ere going to try match it," Oleksiak said. "The thing with Schultz, I don't know what's going to happen. Right now we're focusing on the game, and doing what we can to get the win. Those things have a way to take care of themselves and the league is pretty good about that with fines and suspensions and that business."
2. Coronation day for new King.
The last the Penguins saw of Dion Phaneuf he was getting manhandled by Jake Guentzel in front of the Ottawa net for a power play goal. That was, like, two days and another team ago:
The Senators pulled Phaneuf and Nate Thompson from Tuesday's game in the second period and dealt both to the Kings in exchange for oft-injured Marian Gaborik and Nick Shore.
Phaneuf practiced with his new team Wednesday at the Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township but John Stevens' team did not show defense pairs. If he plays, he'll likely skate on a third pair with Alec Martinez.
Phaneuf took the morning skate but may not play if his immigration/work visa issues can't be worked out quickly. Kings coach John Steven said his team is prepared either way since they didn't trade a defensemen.
"We have guys here who have done a pretty good job all along, so we have depth at that position," Stevens said. "If he's not able to play then we have seven guys who cam move in. We have guys who can play both sides, so it give us a lot of options."
Though he's nowhere close to the player he was with Calgary earlier in his career, the 32-year-old Phaneuf is still a fairly solid defenseman. Look for him to try and make a positive first impression on his new team.
After being traded from Calgary to Toronto, Phaneuf picked up a fighting major against New Jersey's Colin White in his Maple Leafs debut on Feb. 2, 2010. After being dealt from the Leafs to Ottawa three years ago, Phaneuf earned three points (all assists) in his first three games with the Senators. In 29 career regular-season games against the Penguins, Phaneuf has three goals and 14 assists for 17 points.
Through it all, Phaneuf remains as classy a player as you'll meet. Phaneuf is good friends with Phil Kessel, his former teammate in Toronto who he had dinner with on Monday. Phaneuf had this glowing assessment of the Penguins' leading scorer.
"I think he’s having a great year," Phaneuf said. "Phil's ‘been a guy who put up big numbers throughout his whole career. This year he seems to have taken it to another level. Good for him. Anytime he's not playing our team, all the best to him."
Thompson is expected to center the fourth line between Andrey Andreoff and Johnny Brodzinski.
3. The Kings have no clothes?
After starting the season 24-11, the Kings have dropped 10 of their last 16, including their last two. This is the fourth game of an absolutely brutal, season-long seven-game road trip.
This will be a big two points on the line for Los Angeles, which currently sits in ninth in the West, three points behind Minnesota for the final wildcard spot.
Still, Los Angeles has Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, two of the NHL's very best at their respective positions. Kopitar is 13th in scoring with 61 points (23 goals). Doughty is sixth in scoring among all defensemen with 40 points while logging a league-high 26:56. They are aided by Adrian Kempe, who is 16th among rookies with 26 points and is seventh in the NHL with an 18.8 shooting percentage. Kempe scored LA's lone goal in their 3-1 loss to the Penguins on Jan. 18, a breakaway against Casey DeSmith:
"All the guys have been helping me a lot," Kempe told me. "I just try and look to the older guys with a lot of experience and see what they do and take a lot of notes from them. Use my speed as much as possible. Been working pretty well this year but got to keep it going."
While the rest of the NHL seems to be emulating the Penguins' speed game, the Kings are a slower team and play a heavier game than most, even by Western Conference standards. The Kings' 10.1 PIMs per game are sixth-most in the NHL.
Good thing for them, Los Angeles' penalty kill is ranked fourth at 83.4 percent. The Kings should present a stiff challenge for the Penguins' top-ranked power play (26.8 percent).