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With the biggest ever regular season edition of the Freeway Faceoff set to close the 2015-16 season series between the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings tonight at STAPLES Center, lets take a look at some of the noteworthy bits of information for the day.
First, official confirmation of what pretty much everyone expected:
To no one's surprise, John Gibson exits the ice first as the morning skate at Staples winds down.
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) April 7, 2016
John Gibson for his career, regular season and playoffs, is 6-3-0 against the Angelenos with a .918 save percentage and one shutout. The Ducks have allowed an average of 29.26 shots against per 60 minutes in those games, which is a higher workload than Gibson has faced on average this season.
There appears to be a timetable in place for the return of Frederik Andersen, who has not played since sustaining a concussion in the March 30 game against Calgary.
Andersen said his goal is to play this weekend. BB called Washington game "the ideal situation, I think, at this stage" for him.
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) April 7, 2016
Before sustaining the injury, Andersen had seen his play start to cool after putting together a stretch of 13-0-2 in 17 appearances from January 1 through March 5 with a .921 SV%. In the six appearances since, beginning with the loss to St. Louis on March 11 that broke the streak, Andersen went 3-1-1 but posted a .886 SV%.
A couple quotes from Freddie at the link:
Ducks goaltender Frederik Andersen wants to play at least once before the playoffs begin. (Blog post) https://t.co/9eIQKnh1Cy
— Elliott Teaford (@ElliottTeaford) April 7, 2016
Meanwhile there was also an update to the status for Rickard Rakell:
Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau says Rickard Rakell hasn't resumed skating after undergoing appendectomy.
— Elliott Teaford (@ElliottTeaford) April 7, 2016
BB said he's hopeful that Rickard Rakell (appendix) is able to get back on the ice this weekend. Hope is he'll be back for Game 1.
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) April 7, 2016
A quick hitter update on Brandon Pirri as well:
Hasn't been skating with team. No timetable yet. https://t.co/eqyEdd7IpD
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) April 7, 2016
Bruce also had an expected response to the question of whether the Nashville Predators or San Jose Sharks are a more appealing first round matchup:
Boudreau on facing Nashville or San Jose: "Pick your poison."
— Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) April 7, 2016
Finally for the Ducks, Jakob Silfverberg acknowledged the extra fun that comes with playing against Los Angeles at STAPLES Center:
Ducks' @jsilfverberg33 on atmosphere he expects at Staples Center tonight: 'They’ve got some funny stuff going but we love these games
— Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) April 7, 2016
and the fans love them too. They get into them a little extra. It’s a kind of playoff atmosphere and it’s always a lot of fun.'
— Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) April 7, 2016
On the Kings side of things, an early look at possible line combinations from their morning skate in El Segundo:
G'morning from #Gundo. First rushes showed 17-11-70, 23-77-73, 74-44-22, 13-15-10; 3-8, 6-52, 7-5. Martinez not on ice.
— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) April 7, 2016
Also, some pregame words from coach Darryl Sutter:
Darryl Sutter morning skate quotes: https://t.co/NGEgK9IWt8
— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) April 7, 2016
Dustin Brown had an interesting acknowledgement of the difference between Los Angeles down the stretch this season versus last season:
More Dustin Brown: 'This is the type of fun we missed out on last year....I think mentally and physically last year we were (more)
— Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) April 7, 2016
a pretty tired team considering the run we had but on the emotional side of it you want to be playing. You know what you’re missing out on.
— Helene Elliott (@helenenothelen) April 7, 2016
And finally, apparently Angeleno leading goal scorer Tyler Toffoli likes cupcakes. Read about it:
Tyler Toffoli on how his love of cupcakes somehow went viral https://t.co/Ijx0SrcIOg
— Josh Cooper (@JoshuaCooper) April 7, 2016
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We're four and a half hours from puck drop, be sure to check back for the GameThread ahead of the 7:30 puck drop.