Tonight the Los Angeles Kings will play host to the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 4 of the Western Conference Championships. The Kings currently hold a 2-1 series lead, and with a win tonight would push the Blackhawks to the brink of elimination.

The story so far in this series has been the absolute impressive play of Jeff Carter and his line mates Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli. The Blackhawks have simply not had an answer for this line. Carter alone has four goals and seven points in the last two games alone. With the Kopitar and Toews lines going head to head, it was imperative for the Kings that Carter and his line mates took the offensive load and run with it. They have exceeded expectations and will look to continue their hot play tonight.

"That whole line has created a lot for the momentum of our hockey team throughout games," center Mike Richards said. "It seems whenever the other team's starting to create momentum or has momentum, they step up in a big way. Those three, they don't need much room. They just seem to find the areas. They're all natural goal-scorers, and especially Jeff is just a natural goal-scorer. He doesn't need much room and chances to add to the list."

The Kings have owned the puck-possession throughout this series. This dominance has given them the advantage in offensive zone play. Drew Doughty has been a signifcant player for the Kings. Doughty has played over 25 minutes in each of the first three games, has three points, and despite playing the toughest opposition has been above 50% CF% in all but Game 2 of this series. Doughty continues to make a push for the Conn Smythe in these Playoffs with 12 points, a 55.0% CF% and a +2.7% CF% Rel throughout. All of this despite being matched up against the best players the opposition has to offer night in and night out.

The entire Kings team has bought in fully to Coach Sutter’s messaging. They have continuously won puck battles, out working Chicago and forcing turnovers in the Chicago end. Their ability to capitalize on these scoring chances has risen to an entire new level. Struggling with goal-scoring at times throughout the regular season, the Kings lead the Playoffs with 56 goals.

The defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks know that tonight’s game is a must-win. They cannot afford to go back to Chicago down 3-1 in this series. The Kings have too much experience closing out opponents and giving them three chances would be foolhardy.

Jonathan Toews has been a force in this series for Chicago, but Chicago needs some offensive support from the rest of their lineup. Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp have been relatively quiet offensively and this is no doubt related to the poor power play Chicago has had throughout these Playoffs.

"You hope history repeats itself and you can do the same thing," Kane said. "I think scoring a goal like that last year [to clinch the series in Game 5] probably propelled me into playing well the rest of the playoffs, but you can't go into games thinking about scoring or thinking you've got to have a big point night. That's only going to set [you] up for failure. The better way to engage it is try to play fast, try to command the puck, try to get in and make plays and hopefully see a result at the end of the night."

The Blackhawks have gone 1-for-21 in this year’s Playoffs, and this was especially costly in Game 3 when they failed to score on four opportunities. Watching the power play the big area of concern has to be the poor decision-making that is plaguing the Blackhawk’s star players. Errant passes, selfish plays, and costly mistakes are a constant on the power play right now. They need to find some success and soon before these costly mistakes drive them out of the Playoffs altogether.

Corey Crawford stole Game 1 of this series, but the Kings and Quick have gotten the better of him since then. He has not been the problem whatsoever for Chicago and if they don’t give him some offensive support early it will be a long night for Chicago and Crawford.

They say the most important games in any seven game series are Games 1 and 3, but for Chicago tonight Game 4 is make or break.

Quotes within courtesy of NHL.com