With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, teams across the NHL will be reaching an important milestone. This is often seen as a demarcation line between teams that will ultimately make the playoffs and those who won’t.
Before the Kings can enjoy Thursday’s holiday festivities, eating all the turkey and pumpkin pie they please, they’ll first need to deal with the Senators at Crypto.com Arena tonight. This will officially wrap up a quick two-game homestand, and a victory will put them over the .600 mark in points percentage; an important distinction for teams with postseason hopes.
For Los Angeles, that would be good news, considering they currently sit in a wildcard spot in the Western Conference standings. However, it’s a tight race among nearly every team and things are still very much in flux, with fairly significant changes occurring daily.
Putting all of that aside, coach Jim Hiller and his team may have a more pressing topic on their minds heading into tonight’s contest. They have just one win on home ice thus far this season. It’s nice to collect points in overtime and shootouts, yet wins are even better.
One of the biggest challenges at home has been the power play. One could possibly even argue the Kings have been a bigger threat to score when on the penalty kill than with the man advantage. To say the power play has likely cost the team more than a couple of wins at home wouldn’t be a stretch.
After hinting at possible changes to the five-forward approach with LA’s first power play unit, it appears Hiller will stick with the idea — at least to start the game.
Postgame Friday:
Following yesterday’s practice:
Looking at the lineup, as noted above, Hiller is going to flip-flop Warren Foegele and Joel Armia. The latter will now move up to Phil Danault’s line, a reward for his strong play of late. Further, Sammy Helenius is expected to draw in for his first game in over a month; he’ll replace Alex Turcotte at 4C.
Shifting to the other bench, former Kings defenseman Jordan Spence will make his return to Crypto tonight as a member of the Senators. This summer, Spence talked at length about what this game will mean to him during his Kings Of The Podcast appearance.
Statistically Speaking
— The Kings (8-0-3) have an 11-game point streak against Ottawa, dating back to Nov. 7, 2019.
— LA’s five shorthanded goals on the year are tied with the NY Islanders for most League-wide. It is also the sixth time in franchise history the Kings have as many shorthanded markers in the first 22 games to start a season, and the first since the 2014-15 campaign (5 SHG in 22 GP).
— Anze Kopitar is set to play in his final regular-season game against the Ottawa Senators in his career. In 28 games against the Senators lifetime, Kopitar has collected seven goals and 28 points.
— Alex Laferriere scored his fifth goal of the season to open the Kings’ last matchup with the Senators on Nov. 15 in Ottawa. With the 1-0 score holding through more than 50 minutes of action in last Saturday’s contest, Laferriere’s goal marked his first game-winner of the season and seventh of his career.
— Armia scored his league-leading third shorthanded goal of the year on Friday against Boston, his second such tally in as many games and days. Per NHL PR, Armia is the fourth Kings skater since 2000-01 to score a shorthanded goal in consecutive games, and the third in franchise history to do so on consecutive calendar days.
What You May Have Missed
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Kings Projected Lineup vs. Senators
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Moore
Fiala – Byfield – Kempe
Armia – Danault – Laferriere
Foegele – Helenius – Perry
Anderson – Dumoulin
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Ceci
Kuemper
Forsberg
Likely scratches: (F) Turcotte, Malott and (D) N/A
Injured Reserve: Doughty
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 6:00 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
Ottawa is coming off a 3-2 victory over San Jose on Saturday. Here’s how they lined up in that matchup:
Perron – Stutzle – Batherson
Eller – Cozens – Zetterlund
Amadio – Pinto – Giroux
Cousins – Halliday – Hodgson
Sanderson – Zub
Chabot – Jensen
Kleven – Spence
Ullmark
On This Day in Kings History
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