Fargo's NHL WEDNESDAY BREAKAWAY (OPENING NIGHT WINNER)
The most focused team on the ice of the four games tonight has to be the Los Angeles Kings with everything that happened during the offseason after missing the playoffs last season by a couple points. Arrests for drugs and domestic violence chargers marred the franchise but the time to move on is now and they should be plenty motivated to do so. The Kings played an NHL-record 64 playoff games in three years during their championship run, winning an astonishing 10 postseason series over that time. While nobody in Los Angeles uses it as an excuse, they must benefit from five months of recovery as they attempt to get off to a quick start. The Kings still have a championship-caliber core consisting of Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, Marian Gaborik and Jonathan Quick, while adding power forward Milan Lucic to help their top-end scoring. The Sharks also missed the postseason, the first time in 10 years, and the Sharks made some changes within the lineup and on the bench as they brought in Peter DeBoer as the new coach. Goalie Martin Jones has been confirmed to start and it will be against his former team and the Kings can have an edge there. Los Angeles is 14-3 over the last 17 home meetings in this series against San Jose since the start of the 2011-12 season. Goaltender Jonathan Quick has gone 7-2-0 with a 1.74 GAA in his last nine starts against San Jose and I expect the Kings to get this season started the right way. 7* (8) Los Angeles Kings