GAME #1: Los Angeles Kings @ San Jose Sharks (10/12/2016)
Following a previously unprecedented run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2015-2016, the San Jose Sharks took the ice once more at SAP Center on Wednesday night, with the aspiration of achieving yet another improbable run through the West Coast's finest. First on the docket for Team Teal: perhaps their fiercest rivals. Victors in both the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup Finals (against the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, respectively): the always-impressive Los Angeles Kings. With eleven-year veteran Anže Kopitar donning the Los Angeles "C" for the first time in his career, the battle-tested Kings came into tonight's season-opening contest with renewed vigor, seeking to dethrone the reigning Western Conference Champion Sharks. Indeed, the opening stages of tonight's game proved to be nearly flawless for Los Angeles. After an unfortunate tripping penalty was attributed to Logan Couture just 33 seconds removed from the opening puck-drop, it was Kings' forwar