December has already been sort of a reset month for the Kings and we’re only four days in. They entered the month essentially tied with the Ducks for first place in the Pacific Division. However, coach Jim Hiller knew his team needed to be better in several areas.
Tuesday’s game vs. Washington featured a new look power play, one that didn’t include five forwards. Defenseman Brandt Clarke was on PP1 and Brian Dumoulin helped out on the second unit.
“I thought the group with Dumoulin, the puck was moving, looked like there was some action there in and around the net,” Hiller said after the Caps game. “That part was good.”
They still need more from that side of the special teams, though. And tonight could bring even more changes to the units. Drew Doughty is expected to return for his first action in several weeks, after taking a puck off the boot in a game at Ottawa last month. Most likely, Jacob Moverare will resume his status as a healthy scratch and Doughty will rejoin Mikey Anderson on the top pair.
There should also be at least one other change among the forwards — and possibly quite a bit of movement among the 12 playing. Warren Foegele is said to be ready for a return after missing three games with an upper body injury. While we assume he’ll slide onto the third line, there is a question about who will play center. Alex Laferriere saw time there on Tuesday vs. Washington and then again during practice on Wednesday. Of course, this also fueled speculation after Hiller’s postgame comments regarding Phil Danault earlier this week.
“[His reduced] ice time is probably a bit of a reflection on the evaluation,” noted Hiller. “He just hasn’t really got it going yet this year, and he’s not playing special teams as much; that always [adds] minutes. I think if you look at his even-strength minutes vs. everybody else on the team, the group of forwards, it’s up there. He’s just missing some of those special teams minutes and that’s why the ice time is down.”
While the explanation does add further context to the observation, it raised more than a few eyebrows when Danault took a ‘maintenance day’ and skipped Wednesday’s practice.
With Danault most likely back at 3C, Laferriere could still see time at center — just on a different line. Hiller reassembled the Byfield-Kopitar-Kempe line when trailing on Tuesday. Will he go back to it? He also talked about wanting to get Sammy Helenius back in soon, so there’s another potential piece in the mix. Below’s alignment is only a guestimate at this point. Nothing will be set until pregame warmups.
Big picture, with this being the first of two consecutive games against the Blackhawks — with the clubs rematching on Saturday in LA, as well — Hiller also shared a few thoughts on the brief two-game series.
“The second one is usually a little more tactical by both teams, just because you have more time to dig in,” said LA’s bench boss. “In so many games, you’re on to the next team, and the players can get overloaded. But I think when you play back-to-back, there’s probably a little bit more of a ‘dial-in’ factor, especially in the second game.”
Following a 3-1 win in Chicago back in October, the Kings will now look to finish off the season series against the Blackhawks and add to their nine-game home point streak (7-0-2) against Chicago.
Statistically Speaking
— According to Advanced Hockey Stats, the Kings have a 63% chance of winning tonight. When looking at projected goals for the game, LA is at 3.2 and Chicago is at 2.5. Obviously, you can’t score portions of goals, so with rounding, it highlights just how tight this game may end up being. In their previous matchup this season, it was really a 2-1 games until Joel Armia added an empty netter at the end.
— That same site also shared some interesting playoff odds related to tonight’s contest. If the Kings win in regulation, it ups their odds of making the playoffs to 83%. If they were to lose in regulation, the Kings playoff odds fall to 75%.
— The Blackhawks are 11th in goals scored among all NHL teams. The Kings currently sit 29th.
— LA only give up 2.6 goals per game on average. That ranks fourth in the NHL.
— The Kings scoring woes are partly attributed to their poor conversion on the power play. They’ve only mustered 11 power-play goals (28th in the NHL).
— At 26 games played, the Kings are through roughly one-third of their regular season. Sitting 28th in the league with 2.62 Goals/GM (69 GF), they’re down 10 goals when compared to the same point of last season. If they were scoring at last season’s pace, they’d be tied for 13th in the NHL, alongside Vegas and Boston. Where are they missing the goals from? Notable players are underperforming from their prior campaign:
Laferriere, -5
Kempe, -3
Kopitar, -3*
Foegele, -3*
Moore, -3
Danault, -2
*injuries have limited GPs vs. last season
There are 19 lost goals summarized in these key players this season.
Meanwhile, Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield are outperforming their prior season’s 26-game performance by one goal apiece.
— As a team LA’s shooting percentage is 31st in the league. This is another issue suppressing offense.
What You May Have Missed
There are a bunch of former Kings coming back to play a game at Crypto.com Arena in just a few weeks — including Jeff Carter, Jarret Stoll, and Matt Greene:
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Blackhawks
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Fiala – Byfield – Armia
Moore – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Danault – Laferriere
Kuzmenko – Turcotte – Perry
NOTE: This is a pregame projection. Last game, Hiller used Byfield at wing in P3.
Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci
Kuemper
Forsberg
Likely scratches: (F) Helenius, Malott and (D) Moverare
How to Watch the Game
Puck drop is set for 7:30 pm Pacific Time and will be televised locally by FanDuel Sports. Additionally, a Kings radio feed is available on the ESPN LA app.
Get to know new Kings play-by-play voice John Kelly by checking out his interview here. He tells some interesting stories about joining the Kings broadcasts and what it was like calling games against them for most of his career.
Across the Ice
Chicago is coming off a 4-3 shootout loss in Vegas on Tuesday. Here’s how they lined up in that matchup:
Greene — Bedard — Burakovsky
Moore — Nazar — Bertuzzi
Teravainen — Dickinson — Mikheyev
Dach — Donato
Vlasic — Crevier
Kaiser — Levshunov
Grzelcyk — Murphy
Rinzel
Knight
On This Day in Kings History
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