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Kings-Ducks Preview

Jan 17, 2016 - 4:25 AM The Anaheim Ducks captured all three home meetings with the Los Angeles Kings last season, although they all were topsy-turvy affairs that could have gone the other way.

These Pacific Division rivals have yet to meet in 2015-16, and the Ducks will likely debut newcomer David Perron to try to boost their struggling offense when they host the Kings on Sunday night.

Los Angeles (27-13-3) has dropped its last four regular-season visits to Orange County by one goal. Last season's three defeats there saw the Kings blow third-period leads in all of them, including a pair of two-goal margins.

Anaheim (19-17-7) went 4-0-1 in the 2014-15 season series, with four games going to overtime. That gave Ducks fans much-needed bragging rights after the club lost in seven games to the Kings in the 2014 playoffs.

"We all know the importance, we know how these games usually turn out," Anaheim center Nate Thompson said. "They're emotional, it's playoff-style hockey, it's a war out there but they're fun games and we're looking forward to it."

The Ducks have the league's worst offense with an average of 1.95 goals. They made a move to improve that Friday by acquiring Perron and defenseman Adam Clendening from Pittsburgh for Carl Hagelin, who flopped with 12 points in 43 games with Anaheim.

Perron has scored at least 20 goals three times, but had only 16 points in 43 games this season with the Penguins. He has failed to score in 19 straight games.

"I think it gives us more skill," coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Obviously we're a team that's struggling to score. Dave, that's been his history."

Corey Perry has a team-high 17 goals, with no other Duck having more than eight.

The Kings also made a major off-ice move Saturday by finalizing an eight-year, $80 million contract extension with top center Anze Kopitar, though he wasn't in too good a mood after a 5-3 loss to Ottawa that day that capped a 2-1-1 homestand.

"We definitely can't be as sloppy as we were,'' said Kopitar, who has six of his team-high 36 points in a three-game streak.

No-nonsense coach Darryl Sutter was critical of his team's effort, and wasn't too eager to look ahead to the Ducks.

"We haven't played them this year," Sutter said. "I'm not very familiar with them. I haven't seen them play. Don't watch them very much, haven't seen them play, so I can't tell you much about them."

Boudreau was more forthcoming about what to expect from a Kings team that entered the weekend averaging a Western Conference-leading 28.6 hits.

"They just play hard, they've got good players that go hard," he said. "I don't want to use the term they play the right way but they play right to the T of the system that Darryl wants them to play, so it makes it difficult to play against them."

Anaheim did all its scoring in the first period and improved to 4-2-0 on an eight-game homestand with Friday's 4-2 victory over Dallas.

''The first period might have been our best period of the year,'' Boudreau said.

Jakob Silfverberg is showing signs of coming alive with three two-point efforts in his last four games. The winger has 12 points this season after he had a career-high 39 in 2014-15.