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The Los Angeles Kings have made a habit of collecting wins after regulation recently. The Nashville Predators know all too well what its like to be on the losing end of such a contest when facing the Kings.Seeking their fourth straight win, the Kings welcome the struggling Predators to Staples Center on Thursday night.After opening the season with three consecutive losses, the Kings (3-3-0) have bounced back to win three in a row -- all after the score was knotted at the end of regulation. They began their run by winning 4-3 at Dallas in overtime on Thursday, then returned home to top Vancouver by the same score in a shootout on Saturday.Los Angeles continued its winning ways after regulation Tuesday. Alec Martinez scored 74 seconds in overtime to lift the Kings to a 3-2 victory over Columbus.The Kings went 2-1-0 vs. the Predators in 2015-16 with both wins secured in overtime.Jeff Carter scored with 18 seconds to play in the extra session in a 4-3 victory at Staples Center on Oct. 31. Tanner Pearson lit the lamp 1:18 into OT to give the Kings a 2-1 on Feb. 20 in Nashville.Pearson, a left wing, leads the Kings this season with four goals and six points, with all of his points recorded during a career-best four-game points streak. His lone goal and assist vs. the Predators have come in the last two matchups.A completely unexpected key to Los Angeles resurgence has been veteran goaltender Peter Budaj, who was again expected to see the bulk of his playing time this season in the American Hockey League.But Jonathan Quick, the teams all-time wins leader, suffered a lower-body injury in the season opener and is expected to miss up to three months. Backup Jeff Zatkoff strained a groin hours before the win over the Canucks, opening the door for the Budaj, whos surrendered eight goals on 75 shots over the last three contests.Winning is fun, the 34-year-old Budaj told the Kings official website after practice on Wednesday. When you win the games, youre very excited, very happy. Everything comes easier. You work hard easier because your mind is a little looser because youre winning, but you cannot focus on what happened yesterday ... Yesterday was yesterday.Budaj is 7-5-0 with 2.31 goals-against average and one shutout in 12 career games against Nashville. However, hes not faced the Predators since Montreal posted a 2-1 win -- in overtime -- on Nov. 12, 2011.The Kings signed former Predators goaltender Anders Lindback on Wednesday and assigned him to Ontario of the AHL. Lindback has also played for Tampa Bay, Dallas, Buffalo and Arizona, posting a 45-58-8 record with a 2.87 GAA.Nashville dropped to 0-3-0 on the road after being drubbed 6-1 by Anaheim on Wednesday night in the opener of a five-game road trip. Colin Wilsons goal with just over 12 minutes left was the Predators NHL-high 10th of the season.Lack of any offensive punch from their top two threats last season has a hand in why Nashville is tied with Winnipeg for last in the Central Division. Filip Forsberg, a team-best 33-goal scorer last season, has yet to tally one in 2016-17. James Neal, who was second on the club with 31 goals, also has yet to score.The Predators top two defensemen, P.K. Subban (two goals, team high-tying five points) and Roman Josi (three assists and four points) have been trying to fill the offensive gap, but Nashvilles goaltenders were shaky while surrendering five special-teams goals -- two of them short-handed -- against the Ducks.Pekka Rinne, playing in his first game after missing one due to food poisoning, was lifted late in the second period after stopping only 13 of 17 shots. Marek Mazanec, appearing in just his third NHL game going back to January 2015, turned aside seven of nine shots.Weve got to do a better job of just being harder to play against, defending our goaltender better and defending our end better, Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said.However, Rinne is 2-0-1 in his last three appearances in Los Angeles despite posting a 3.57 GAA in that span. Mazanec defeated the Kings in his only start against them in December 2013 in Nashville.The Predators are 3-0-1 in their last four games at Staples Center, all one-goal decisions. Starbucks Swell Bottles Liberty . In taking its goal tally to 99 in all competitions already this season, City delivered another demonstration of its lethal firepower at Etihad Stadium to set up a fourth-round match at home to another second-tier team -- Watford. Swell Bottles Clearance . Defenceman Yannick Weber scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Canucks breathed a sigh of relief with a 2-1 win on Saturday night. http://www.swellbottlesclearance.com/ . -- About a third of the way through the regular season, the Washington Wizards are at . Swell Bottle Wood Collection . Despite dominating possession, Schalke needed an own goal from Nicolas Hoefler for the breakthrough a minute before the interval. The Freiburg midfielder misjudged Jefferson Farfans corner and bundled the ball into his own net. SWell Bottle Clearance . Now tied for second in the league in shootout goals, the 24-year-old likes to see what the opposing goaltender has in store before he ultimately lands on a move. BALTIMORE -- Donald Trump is partaking in one of the nations most storied football rivalries, saluting U.S. troops at the annual Army-Navy game on Saturday as he prepares to enter the White House.The future commander in chief attended the 117th game between the military academies at West Point and Annapolis, which is being held on relatively neutral ground, in Baltimore, Maryland.Trump tweeted on Saturday morning that he was going to the game as a show of support for our Armed Forces. He planned to spend the first half of the game in the box of David Urban, a West Point graduate and Republican adviser and the second half in the box of retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, a graduate of Annapolis.A Trump transition official said Trump would not formally switch sides at halftime in the traditional symbol of commander in chief neutrality because he is not the sitting president. The team member spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the president-elects plans. Trump is a 1964 graduate of the New York Military Academy near West Point.Before the game, Trump met with Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, a leading contender for secretary of state. Trumps pick to lead the State Department is among his most significant decisions and the deliberations have become a source of tension within his transition team, with chief of staff Reince Priebus said to be backing Mitt Romney while other advisers oppose the idea of selecting the 2012 GOP nominee, given his fierce criticism of Trump during the campaign.Tillerson, who has led Exxon Mobil since 2006, and also met Trump earlier in the week.In addition to Romney, Trump hass also been considering Tennessee Sen.dddddddddddd Bob Corker and John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.Trump announced Friday that Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who was an early favorite, was no longer under consideration.Trumps appearance at the football game was capping off a week of rolling out Cabinet picks, holding thank you rallies in North Carolina, Iowa and Michigan, and trying to cement his incoming Senate majority with Saturdays runoff election in Louisiana.The incoming president appeared jovial and relaxed as he plunged back into electoral politics on Friday, a full month after he won the presidency. He held large-scale events in Louisiana and in Michigan, where he regaled supporters in Grand Rapids by reciting his victories in battleground states.Trump is the first Republican to win Michigan since George H.W. Bush in 1988. He attributed his feat to failures by Democrats.In private, people close to Trump said he was expected to name yet another Goldman Sachs executive to his White House team. The president-elects National Economic Council is to be led by Gary Cohn, president and chief operating officer of the Wall Street bank, which Trump repeatedly complained during the election campaign would control Hillary Clinton if she won.---Associated Press writers Lisa Lerer, Julie Pace, Julie Bykowicz and Lolita Baldor in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa contributed.---Reach Thomas on Twitter at www.twitter.com/KThomasDC ' ' '