Matt Carle and Teddy Purcell, two modern knights in the Flyers-Kings joustings. (Photo via Life Magazine)

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One of the biggest surprises early on in this nascent NHL campaign is the Los Angeles Kings, who have stunned many by racing out to a 13-7-2 start that has them in fourth place in the Western Conference. And while most Flyers fans don't know (or care) a whole lot about the Kings, there's a lot of ice under the bridge between these two squads.

Along with the Penguins, Blues, North Stars, and Golden Seals, the Flyers and Kings were part of the six-team expansion of the NHL in 1967.  The two have had a pretty long (but not particularly storied) history with one another, the latest chapter of which is set to be written at 10:30 ET tonight, in the House That Kobe Built.

With that historical perspective in mind, here are some things you almost certainly do not know about the Los Angeles Kings, seen through orange-tinted lenses:

• The Flyers and Kings have played 135 times, with the Flyers posting an 80-37-16 record in those contests.  None too shabby.  The Flyers are also a pretty awesome 38-22-8 all-time in Los Angeles.
• 17 of those 80 Flyers wins over the Kings were of the shut out variety, including four each by Bernie Parent and Doug Favell, and two each by Wayne Stephenson, Pelle Lindbergh, and Roman Cechmanek.

• The 1974-75 season, best known in these parts for being the year of the Flyers' last Stanley Cup win, was also the most successful regular season in Kings history in terms of points.  The Kings 105 point total was largely because of their incredible number of ties, with their 42-17-21 record including more ties than losses.  Sadly for the Kings, there are no ties in the playoffs, and the Kings bowed out in three games to the Maple Leafs in the first round.

• The Kings have only won their division once in 41 seasons (1990-91 Smythe Division), a number that compares none-too favorably with the Flyers fifteen division crowns over the same time period.
• The Kings and Flyers have never met in the playoffs, making the Kings the oldest team still in existence that the Flyers have never faced in the postseason.  
• Recent Flyers Hall of Fame Inductee Dave Schultz was traded to the Kings in September of 1976 in exchange for two picks (4th Rd 1977 and 2nd Rd 1978).
• Powered almost entirely by Head Coach Barry Melrose's hair gel, the Kings made the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, their only trip to date to the last stage of the playoffs.  The Kings lost to the Canadiens in five.  In a feat not likely to be repeated any time soon, the Kings played all four of their playoff series against Canadian teams, knocking off the Flames, Canucks, and Maple Leafs on their way to the final.  That means that "O Canada" was played eleven times in The Forum during the playoffs, a record for an American arena.  The Flyers also didn't face an American team during the 1993 playoffs.  Or any team, for that matter.
• In the fourteen seasons since that run, the Kings have only won one playoff series, a first round upset of the Red Wings in 2001.  The Flyers have fared somewhat better, winning thirteen series.

Little of that will matter come tonight though.  With Anze Kopitar and the two or three other Kings you might have heard of at the wheel, there's a pretty good team in Los Angeles these days.  But the Flyers are awesome themselves, so it should make for a decidedly good late slate of hockey. 

It definitely beats watching that terrible new Jay  Leno Show, that's for sure.

After the jump, a look back at the most recent Kings foray into Philadelphia, from last February, as well as any comments or thoughts you may have on the Flyers-Kings match-up.

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The state-of-the-art radio facilities here at BSH. We wish.

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Tonight, join myself, Ben, and Geoff as we delve into all things Flyers on the premiere edition of Broad Street Hockey Radio. The show will begin at 7 PM ET, but the live stream will be available beginning at 6:45. How do I get to the stream, you ask? Don't fear. Just come right here at show time to broadstreethockey.com and the player will be located right at the top of the page.

On tonight's show, we'll break down the Flyers 3-2 win over New Jersey from a night ago and look ahead to a brutal road trip that sees the orange and black travel out west to face off against some of the best teams the other conference has to offer. We'll also take a look at the brewing competition for the third defensive pairing, and we'll make our selections for the Flyers All-Decade Team.

Of course, we'll be taking your calls all show long. The number to call in is (724) 444-7444, with a Call ID of 66314.

If you can't tune in live, you'll be able to catch a recording of the show at your leisure beginning about 15 minutes after we go off the air.

We'll see you tonight!

More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

Dave Schultz speaks during his induction ceremony to the Flyers' Hall of Fame.

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Good luck, and God bless the Philadelphia Flyers.

>> Dave Schultz, pointing to the Flyers bench

Prior to this evening's game at the Wachovia Center, the Flyers inducted Dave "The Hammer" Schultz into the team's Hall of Fame. He is the 20th player to receive the honor. The ceremony reportedly went long and the organization will likely be fined by the league for delaying the start of the game. Any fine levied is well worth it, however, and I'm sure Ed Snider agrees. UPDATE: According to Anthony SanFillippo, the Flyers were given an extension for puck drop. They just made the 7:20 PM deadline, meaning no fine will be handed out.

It would've been fitting for the team to be handed a penalty by the league on Dave Schultz night.

Take a jump and check out the videos from the arena tonight, courtesy of the Flyers and the NHL.

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Dave Schultz will enter the Flyers Hall of Fame this evening.

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From a total lack of identity in the sixties, two players gave the Flyers their character in the seventies. Bobby Clarke gave them their hard-working, tenacious, never-say-die quality, while Dave Schultz gave them their sneering, cocky, even arrogant "Broad Street Bullies" temperament.

>> Gene Hart, the Voice, in his 1990 book SCORE!

Following the 1969 season, the Philadelphia Flyers were a two-year-old organization with an identity crisis. They had been defeated by the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs for the second consecutive year. But it wasn't just the fact that they had lost -- after all, Ed Snider, Bud Poile, Keith Allen, and the rest of the Flyers' brass knew it wouldn't be easy going as an expansion franchise.

No, it was the way they lost. The Blues absolutely stomped all over Philadelphia in the 1969 West Division Quarterfinals. They embarrassed every single player that wore orange and black and every single person that worked in the front office. Jacques Plante stood on his head in goal while his comrades in front of him beat the living daylights out of the Flyers en route to a four-game sweep. While Philadelphia went home ashamed, the Blues went on to second of what would be three straight Stanley Cup Finals appearances.

What nobody knew at the time, however, was that the Flyers would win two Cups in the next decade, while the Blues still have yet to hoist the trophy in their history. But if it weren't for that beatdown at the hands of St. Louis in 1969, there might not have been a parade down Broad Street in 1974 or 1975. If not for that beatdown, the Flyers would have never realized the identity that still follows them to this day.

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For the last several days, all five Atlantic Division teams--the Penguins, Rangers, Devils, Flyers, and Islanders--have been in the top seven of the standings in the Eastern conference, their supremacy interrupted only by the respective division leaders of the Southeast and Northeast Divisions.

It's probably not reasonable to expect all five Atlantic teams to make it into the playoffs this year.  Based on their starts, Ottawa, Buffalo, and Boston should all have a pretty good chance of making it into the playoffs out of the Northeast, as will Carolina from the Southeast if they can turn things around.  And though they are currently in the #7 slot, the Islanders have still only won five of their first fifteen games. 

But even if five Atlantic teams in to the playoffs, there's a pretty good chance there will be four.  Since divisional realignment began in the 1998-1999 season, the Atlantic Division has never sent fewer than three teams to the playoffs, a mark to which no other division comes close.

There have been four Atlantic Division representatives in the playoffs each of the last three years.  No division had ever sent four teams to the playoffs on three separate occasions, much less in a consecutive,  back-to-back-to-back fashion as the Atlantic did in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Here are some more things you may not know about the illustrious Atlantic:

• The Atlantic is by far the most compact of the league's six divisions.  The two most distant locales in the division, Mellon Arena and Nassau Colliseum, are a mere 336 miles apart. 
• The Atlantic is the only division in which all five teams have won a Stanley Cup, with no other division having more than three previous Cup winners.  Not only has every team in the division won a Stanley Cup, every team has done it at least twice.
• In the 2008 Playoffs, the none of the four Atlantic Division teams lost to a non-Atlantic foe until the Stanley Cup Finals, when Pittsburgh lost to Detroit.

After the jump, a highlight reel of each Atlantic Division team beating another Atlantic Division team in the first month of the season.  Because  not only do we have some good teams here in the Atlantic Division, we've also got some semblance of parity.

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More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

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Continuing our intra-SBN relationships, today we stopped by Japers' Rink again and asked them a few questions.  With a new writer coming aboard over there, J.P. let her answer our questions.

Look after the jump for an assessment of the Capitals' recent four-game winning streak, Semyon Varlamov's continued struggles, and the desired tempo of tonight's game.

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Scott Hartnell during the Flyers' playoff clinching win over Florida last April. Photo via cdn0.sbnation.com

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Continuing with our hit series of pre-brawl questions to size up our opponents, we next hear from the good folks at Litter Box Cats, SB Nation's Florida Panthers community.

Double the pleasure on this edition, as two of the writers from the excellent Litter Box Cats, Whale4Ever and DolPhanDave, both weighed in for us. 

Their excellent and well thought out answers are after the jump:

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photo by T.J. Hooker at Glens Falls Post-Star

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The Phantoms have undergone quite the transition over the last few months, and as they've moved away from the Delaware Valley to the unknown world of upstate New York, it's been a Philadelphia native who has brought us the news we need to know.

Tim McManus, the Phantoms beat writer for the Glens Falls Post-Star, was born and raised just a stones throw away from the South Philly Sports Complex. A graduate of La Salle University in the Olney section of the city, he lived in Philadelphia for his entire life before leaving for grad school. He worked at The Trentonian in (you guessed it) Trenton, NJ before landing his current gig in Glens Falls two and a half years ago.

McManus has been a diehard Philadelphia fan his entire life. The 27-year-old's fondest Flyers memory came in 2000 when Keith Primeau scored in the fifth overtime to beat Pittsburgh. After a long evening high school event, McManus tells us that he "never thought he'd get home in time to see five periods of hockey" and that when his friend called the house phone right after the goal (in the middle of the night), it didn't matter because everybody was awake anyway.

McManus is clearly a media guy that knows how to utilize new media tools. His blog on the Post-Star website is truly awesome work; it's a fantastic way to keep up with the day-to-day activities of the Flyers' farm club. He's also on Twitter (@PSPhantoms), and of course his articles in the paper are chock full of quality coverage.

We had the pleasure of asking McManus a few questions this week. Among other things, we chatted about the future of the Phantoms in Glens Falls and their potential future move to Allentown, how Randy Jones is handling his AHL demotion, and who is lining up to be the first injury callup to the Flyers.

See our complete interview with exiled Philly fan and Adirondack Phantoms beat writer Tim McManus after the jump.

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