Todd McLellan submitted 291 lineup cards with Drew Doughty’s name included during his time in Los Angeles behind the Kings bench, yet he won’t have the opportunity to coach against his former rearguard on Monday night in Detroit. Mayor’s Manor has learned the all-star defenseman is officially out for tonight, with his most probable return game coming in Florida on Wednesday. One thing is certain — or at least as certain as things can be in pro sports — the organization is not planning on using Doughty in both games of their back-to-back jaunt through Florida later this week.
In addition to his highly anticipated return to the Kings is a whole other discussion that has moved from lurking in the background to now center stage. On Sunday, it was revealed that Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was withdrawing from next month’s 4 Nations Face-Off event. Which had to be good news for Doughty. He has certainly never hidden the fact that he’d love to play for Team Canada if a roster spot opened up.
From what we’ve been able to gather, Canada has until Feb. 11 to officially name Pietrangelo’s replacement. However, officials are said to want to name the new player by Feb. 9 because their first team practice is on Feb. 10 in Montreal, and they would prefer to have all hands on deck from Day 1.
In speaking with people close to the situation, that leaves Doughty with five games to get ready — two on this road trip (Florida and Carolina), followed by three more games at home (Montreal, Dallas, and Anaheim). Perhaps what’s most interesting about that schedule is the final two games will be played on back-to-back nights at Crypto.com Areana.
There’s no need to get ahead of ourselves, though. One thing at a time. And first on that list is getting Doughty back into the Kings lineup later this week.
Until then, there’s still a game to play tonight against the Red Wings…
One week from today will mark the one-year anniversary of McLellan being fired by the Kings and replaced by coach Jim Hiller. Tonight will mark the first time the two have squared off against each other as head coaches.
During Hiller’s 80 regular season games (just two shy of a ‘full season’ equivalent) as the Kings bench boss, LA has accumulated 101 points. He’ll no doubt be looking to a few more to that total over the next two games.
Coming off a 3-2 overtime loss on Saturday in Columbus, offensive woes continue to haunt Los Angeles this month. They have now scored two or fewer goals in eight of their last 10 contests. Diving in a little deeper, Adrian Kempe has seven of the team’s last twenty goals, roughly 35% of the total output.
Statistically Speaking
— Kempe skates into Detroit with 11 points (9G, 2A) in 13 career games against the Red Wings, including nine (7G, 2A) in his last seven contests.
— Anze Kopitar has an active six-game road point streak against Detroit, totaling 11 points (6G, 5A), dating back to Nov. 28, 2017.
— Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who leads the team with 23:58 minutes of time-on-ice (TOI) per game, is set to skate in his 400th career NHL game Monday night at Little Caesars Arena. By doing so, Gavrikov would become the 10th different blueliner selected in the 2015 NHL Draft to accomplish such feat.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Red Wings
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Turcotte – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Moore
Fiala– Danault – Laferriere
Jeannot – Helenius – Lewis
Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Spence
Moverare – Clarke
Kuemper (starter)
Rittich
Likely scratches: (F) Thomas and (D) Burroughs, Englund
Injured Reserve: Doughty
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 4:00 pm Pacific Time and will be televised locally by FanDuel Sports Network. 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).
More on the ongoing TV situation here.
Across the Ice
Detroit is coming off a 2-0 victory over Tampa Bay on Saturday. Here is how they lined up for that contest:
Kasper – Larkin – Raymond
Debrincat – Copp – Tarasenko
Veleno – Compher – Berggren
Soderlom – Rasmussen – Fischer
Chiarot – Seider
Edvinsson – Johansson
Gustafsson – Holl
Talbot
NOTE: Patrick Kane is on IR
On This Day in Kings History
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