It’s not often when one of your veteran defensemen calls a March game against one of the worst teams in the league a “must-win,” but Joel Edmundson did just that following a rough weekend for the Kings. When LA finishes off a short three-game road trip in Chicago on Monday night, they’ll do so while looking to get back on track and picking up a crucial two points in the standings.
There seems to be no happy medium for the Kings this season. Either they play like a division-winning caliber club or a mediocre team in need of assistance come the NHL Trade Deadline. This past weekend highlighted the latter, as they struggled offensively, defensively, in net, and on special teams.
What coach Jim Hiller opts to do with his lineup for tonight will be interesting. In similar cases, some coaches look to give the exact same group another opportunity to dig themselves out. We’ll assume Darcy Kuemper returns in net, yet David Rittich is at least an option to get the net. Neither played particularly well last time out, with Kuemper giving up six goals in Dallas on Friday and Rittich suffering a similar fate in St. Louis, giving up four. Given their roster makeup — and the composition of all but a small handful of NHL teams — the Kings simply aren’t built to give up that many goals, and they won’t win too many contests with back and forth scoring all night. Thus, it will likely be up to Kuemper to quiet things down and get this club back in the win column.
As for the rest of the roster, Hiller could opt to return to an 11+7 alignment, allowing Brandt Clarke back into the fray. LA’s young defenseman isn’t the top priority at the moment, though. Winning is. Therefore, Hiller will have to choose what’s more important now and playing every possible forward may be the better call. Another option to get Clarke back in could be to rest Jacob Moverare and have one of the other defensemen play on their offside. There is also the whole Anderson-Doughty debate. If they’re put back together, that too has a trickledown effect on all other pairings.
Statistically Speaking
— Quinton Byfield notched a pair of assists in his last trip to United Center on March 15, 2024, and now owns a pair of multi-point performances in his last four games against the team.
— Adrian Kempe enters today’s game with two or more points in three of his last four games against the Blackhawks, dating back to March 15, 2024.
— The Kings have an 11-game point streak (8-0-3) against the Chicago Blackhawks, dating back to Nov. 2, 2019.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Blackhawks
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Turcotte – Kopitar – Laferriere
Fiala – Byfield – Kempe
Foegele – Danault – Moore
Jeannot – Thomas – Lewis
Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Doughty
Moverare – Spence
Kuemper (starter)
Rittich
Likely scratches: (F) N/A and (D) Burroughs, Clarke
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 5:30 pm Pacific Time and will be televised locally by FanDuel Sports. Additionally, a Kings radio feed is available on the ESPN LA app (which is the new home for Kings radio this season, they’ve moved off of the iHeart platform).
Across the Ice
Chicago is coming off a 6-3 victory over Anaheim on Saturday. Here is how they lined up for that contest:
Athanasiou – Bedard – Bertuzzi
Slaggert – Nazar – Dach
Teravainen – Donato – Mikheyev
Maroon – Reichel – Smith
Vlasic – Martinez
Del Mastro – Murphy
Kaiser – Brodie
NOTE: Newly acquired goaltender Spencer Knight is expected to start vs. LA.
On This Day in Kings History
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