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Wednesday marked Artemi Panarin’s first day practicing in an LA Kings jersey, and head coach Jim Hiller met with the media to discuss a myriad of topics, including: the newest addition to his lineup, Kevin Fiala’s injury, and what the roster will likely look like coming out of the Olympic break.
Below are the key takeaways from Hiller’s media availability — note, commentary has been slightly edited and/or paraphrased for reading purposes.
Fiala underwent surgery in Italy after suffering a lower leg injury during Switzerland’s Olympic opener and will miss the remainder of the regular season.
“That’s the fear, right?” said Hiller, when asked about losing a player to injury. “We’re all proud of everybody that represents in the Olympics and it’s the greatest opportunity, but there is always downside risk for certain teams. We happened to catch a bad break.”
Despite losing one of the team’s top scorers, and adding another with a different playing style, Hiller doesn’t anticipate major schematic changes for the Kings.
“I don’t think we’re going to try to approach things differently. As much as they are offensive players—Kevin and Artemi—they play a little bit different style. Whoever is going to play with Artemi has to get up to speed with how he plays his style of game. I think that’ll be the quickest, or the most important factor, is to just understand how he plays and be able to play off of that.”
Hiller revealed that Alex Laferriere and Adrian Kempe are the early frontrunners to skate alongside Panarin.
“Laff is a right shot. As a right shot, it’s most natural to pass it to your left. Panarin is going to be on his left, so that’s part of the equation. I thought [the two of them] had some chemistry today already. It looks to be pretty easy to have chemistry with Panarin. He makes a lot of good offensive plays, but [the two of them] had some pretty good plays going.”
Later in the conversation, Hiller didn’t seem to have much interest in playing Panarin with Kopitar, at least not at the moment. It seemed more like Quinton Byfield would be the second center to possibly get some time with Panarin as his winger. Again, though, that’s more speculation than actual concrete info. Hiller wasn’t really prepared to commit to anything beyond starting him with Laferriere.
Panarin’s arrival will alter the look of LA’s power play, particularly given the change in handedness.
“It will probably be different personnel, different look. Panarin comes in, he’s a righty. Fiala goes out, he’s a lefty. So what does that look like? Hands are so important on the power play. Panarin is going to be a player who has the puck primarily and is running that power play. So how do we give him the most amount of options?”
When asked whether pairing Panarin with Byfield could help unlock the young center’s scoring touch, Hiller indicated that’s not the initial plan—but emphasized that Byfield needs to shoot more regardless.
“We’ve looked at a lot of different things. It doesn’t look like that’s the way it’s going to start. But on the point, Q has to turn himself into a shooter. If you guys watched practice today, he scored a bunch of goals. He told me he scored 14, I said I saw five. Probably somewhere in between, but he did score a lot of goals today. So he’s got to just shoot. On some of the 2-on-1s, he didn’t overpass, he just shot it. That’s a mentality you [have to have] as a player.”
The Kings appear to be getting healthier, though some players may not be at full strength right away.
“I would say we’re healthier. It looks like we’ll have some players that are going to have to play through some things, even after the break.”
When asked specifically about Andrei Kuzmenko and Alex Turcotte returning from the Olympic break, Hiller said, “It’s trending that way.” He also added that Mikey Anderson is also expected back next week.
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Wednesday marked Artemi Panarin’s first day practicing in an LA Kings jersey, and head coach Jim Hiller met with the media to discuss a myriad of topics, including: the newest addition to his lineup, Kevin Fiala’s injury, and what the roster will likely look like coming out of the Olympic break.
Below are the key takeaways from Hiller’s media availability — note, commentary has been slightly edited and/or paraphrased for reading purposes.
Kevin Fiala’s Injury
Fiala underwent surgery in Italy after suffering a lower leg injury during Switzerland’s Olympic opener and will miss the remainder of the regular season.
“That’s the fear, right?” said Hiller, when asked about losing a player to injury. “We’re all proud of everybody that represents in the Olympics and it’s the greatest opportunity, but there is always downside risk for certain teams. We happened to catch a bad break.”
Team Structure After a Roster Shakeup
Despite losing one of the team’s top scorers, and adding another with a different playing style, Hiller doesn’t anticipate major schematic changes for the Kings.
“I don’t think we’re going to try to approach things differently. As much as they are offensive players—Kevin and Artemi—they play a little bit different style. Whoever is going to play with Artemi has to get up to speed with how he plays his style of game. I think that’ll be the quickest, or the most important factor, is to just understand how he plays and be able to play off of that.”
Panarin’s Linemates
Hiller revealed that Alex Laferriere and Adrian Kempe are the early frontrunners to skate alongside Panarin.
“Laff is a right shot. As a right shot, it’s most natural to pass it to your left. Panarin is going to be on his left, so that’s part of the equation. I thought [the two of them] had some chemistry today already. It looks to be pretty easy to have chemistry with Panarin. He makes a lot of good offensive plays, but [the two of them] had some pretty good plays going.”
Later in the conversation, Hiller didn’t seem to have much interest in playing Panarin with Kopitar, at least not at the moment. It seemed more like Quinton Byfield would be the second center to possibly get some time with Panarin as his winger. Again, though, that’s more speculation than actual concrete info. Hiller wasn’t really prepared to commit to anything beyond starting him with Laferriere.
The Power Play
Panarin’s arrival will alter the look of LA’s power play, particularly given the change in handedness.
“It will probably be different personnel, different look. Panarin comes in, he’s a righty. Fiala goes out, he’s a lefty. So what does that look like? Hands are so important on the power play. Panarin is going to be a player who has the puck primarily and is running that power play. So how do we give him the most amount of options?”
Byfield’s Shot Mentality
When asked whether pairing Panarin with Byfield could help unlock the young center’s scoring touch, Hiller indicated that’s not the initial plan—but emphasized that Byfield needs to shoot more regardless.
“We’ve looked at a lot of different things. It doesn’t look like that’s the way it’s going to start. But on the point, Q has to turn himself into a shooter. If you guys watched practice today, he scored a bunch of goals. He told me he scored 14, I said I saw five. Probably somewhere in between, but he did score a lot of goals today. So he’s got to just shoot. On some of the 2-on-1s, he didn’t overpass, he just shot it. That’s a mentality you [have to have] as a player.”
Injury Updates
The Kings appear to be getting healthier, though some players may not be at full strength right away.
“I would say we’re healthier. It looks like we’ll have some players that are going to have to play through some things, even after the break.”
When asked specifically about Andrei Kuzmenko and Alex Turcotte returning from the Olympic break, Hiller said, “It’s trending that way.” He also added that Mikey Anderson is also expected back next week.
Follow @mayorsmanor
Continue reading...