Los Angeles @ Philadelphia preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 31, 2019 ) Philadelphia 3, Los Angeles 5

The Philadelphia Flyers lowered the boom on three heavyweights recently before getting knocked down by a struggling team in their last contest. The Flyers look to pick themselves off the mat and topple another sputtering club on Saturday when they host the Los Angeles Kings.

After putting forth spirited efforts in wins over Washington, Boston and St. Louis in the span of eight days, Philadelphia brought little to the party on Thursday and dropped a 4-1 decision to Montreal. "A game like (Wednesday) night against St. Louis, we go there and get a big win, emotional win, sometimes after an emotional win it's tough to kind of get up the next day but it's no excuse," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. Philadelphia looks to rebound from that loss and carries a 15-4-4 record at home into its tilt versus Los Angeles, which has lost three in a row on its five-game trek to fall to 7-16-4 on the road this season. "We're professionals. We should be able to show up, but let's get out of the sunshine, let's get back to the cold weather," Kings coach Todd McLellan said after his team yielded the first four goals in a 4-3 loss to Florida on Thursday.

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS West, NBCS Philadelphia

ABOUT THE KINGS (18-26-5): Captain Anze Kopitar scored a goal and set up two others in Los Angeles' comeback bid versus the Panthers to boost his team-leading totals in tallies (17), assists (26) and points (43). "It's the desperation part that kicked in in the second half of the third," the 32-year-old Slovene said. "We've got to figure out how to bring that to the start of games." Kopitar also set up power-play goals by Alex Iafallo and Tyler Toffoli 1:48 apart to highlight the Kings' four-goal first period in a 5-3 victory over Philadelphia on New Year's Eve.

ABOUT THE FLYERS (25-17-6): Giroux scored on the power play against Los Angeles and added a goal and an assist versus Vegas in the following outing before being limited to just two points -- both assists -- in his last seven games. Jakub Voracek, who is tied with Sean Couturier with a club-best 28 assists, set up a pair of goals in the first encounter with the Kings. Brian Elliott, who has been confirmed to start on Saturday, looks to atone after permitting all four goals on 15 shots in the first period against Los Angeles.

OVERTIME

1. Los Angeles C Jeff Carter, who began his career with Philadelphia (2005-11) has answered a seven-game point drought with two goals and an assist in his last two games.

2. Flyers D Ivan Provorov has averaged over 24 minutes of ice time in each game of the calendar year.

3. Iafallo has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his last dozen games, including a goal versus Philadelphia.

PREDICTION: Flyers 3, Kings 2