Music: {allcanada} KINGS (21-11-2) at CANUCKS (14-14-9)

Sunday, December 27, 2015

{allcanada} KINGS (21-11-2) at CANUCKS (14-14-9)

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Monday, December 28, 2015

10:00 PM ET

KINGS (21-11-2) at CANUCKS (14-14-9)

TV: FS-W, SNP

Season series: The Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings have split two games at Staples Center. Vancouver defeated Los Angeles 3-0 on Oct. 13; the Kings won 2-1 in overtime on Dec. 1. Defenseman Alex Edler leads the Canucks with a goal and an assist. Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty each have scored a goal for the Kings. Kopitar's goal was the overtime winner.

Kings team scope: Center Jeff Carter is day-to-day with an upper-body ailment, general manager Dean Lombardi told LA Kings Insider on Sunday. Carter left after two shifts in the Kings' 4-3 overtime win at the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday and didn't return. Carter has returned to Los Angeles for treatment, but Lombardi said he's optimistic that he'll return to action before the Kings current four-game road trip concludes on New Year's Eve. With Carter's absence, the top two lines at practice in Glendale, Ariz., before they departed for Vancouver saw Kopitar between Milan Lucic and Tyler Toffoli, and center Nick Shore with Tanner Pearson and Marian Gaborik. The Kings filed a request to have the NHL rescind the match penalty assessed to defenseman Jake Muzzin in the third period against Arizona. The Coyotes scored twice during the long power play to force overtime and earn a point. "I said [Saturday] night that it was a [road apples] call," coach Darryl Sutter said Sunday. "It cost us a point."

Canucks team scope: Goalie Ryan Miller (lower body), defensemen Christopher Tanev (lower body), Dan Hamhuis (face) and Luca Sbisa (hand), and forwards Henrik Sedin (lower body) and Brandon Sutter (sports hernia) did not practice Sunday. However, coach Willie Desjardins told the Canucks website that he expects Sedin and Higgins, who has not played since Dec. 20 with an undisclosed ailment, to dress against the Kings for the second of a seven-game homestand. Forward Alexandre Burrows, who missed the Canucks' 2-1 overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday after he participated in the morning skate, also is expected to return. "I had a really stiff neck," Burrows said. "I guess I've spent too much time in the hotel probably … I had some treatment [on Saturday night] and it feels pretty good." The Canucks recalled 21-year-old defenseman Ashton Sautner from Utica of the American Hockey League. If he plays against the Kings, it will be his NHL debut. The Canucks have taken seven out of a possible eight points in their past four games.