Urgency, but not panic. That should be the message as coach Jim Hiller and the Kings make final preparations for Thursday night’s homecoming party in Downtown LA. It will be their first regular season game at Crypto.com Arena this season, and waiting across the ice will be a youth-filled San Jose Sharks club.
After a lengthy road trip to begin their 2024-25 campaign, the Kings will now enter a stretch where three of the next four games are to be played at Crypto.com Arena. In fact, their only road game will come next Tuesday in Northern California for a rematch of tonight’s contest.
First things first, though, as the two intrastate rivals need to play out this game.
Coach Jim Hiller is still searching for a sense of consistency from his team. Holding a record of 3-2-2, and earning eight out of a possible 14 points, it’s not necessarily a bad place to be — it’s some of the underlying issues that are likely a bit troubling. Even so, the fact remains that Hiller’s group has beaten three teams that they should have, while losing to four teams widely considered to be better than LA currently.
A majority of issues can be focused on the Kings defensive play. Putting Drew Doughty’s injury to the side — and yes, he’s impossible to replace — they still haven’t been good enough most nights. Frankly, the defense has been exposed several times already this season. Ottawa, Toronto and Vegas all put up at least five tallies against LA. A lack of net front presence was especially concerning a few nights ago in Vegas. Committing to better coverage in the home plate slot area needs to get squared away sooner rather than later to avoid further nightmares.
Some good news can be found on two fronts. For starters, the Kings were very good on home ice last year especially down the stretch leading up to the playoffs. Perhaps their own building is just what the doctor ordered to fix some of the lackluster performances thus far. Furthermore, the once highly competitive rivalry between the Kings and Sharks has been rather lopsided in favor of LA since 2022. In their last eight head-to-head matchups, the Kings are 7-0-1 giving them points in all eight contests.
Then, there’s the lineup for tonight. Could there be some changes? Most likely. All signs point to Akil Thomas making his season debut, and there will likely be some shuffling on the blueline.
Various ideas and potential lineup combinations were heavily debated on this week’s Kings Of The Podcast episode, available here:
Statistically Speaking
— A familiar face will return to SoCal tonight, as Tyler Toffoli signed with the Sharks this past summer. In seven career games vs. LA, the former Stanley Cup champion has recorded six points (4G, 2A). He’s originally from Scarborough, a suburb just outside Toronto. Akil Thomas is from the same hometown.
— In an odd piece of trivia that’s always worth bringing up, the first player to ever score a goal for the LA Kings was a player named Brian Kilrea. He only played 25 NHL games with the club that season before requesting a demotion to the minor leagues (more on that here). Kilrea went on to become one of the most successful junior hockey coaches of all-time. To give some perspective on his lengthy career behind the bench, he served as the OHL coach for Jim Fox, and then decades later, Toffoli.
— Last season, the Kings led the NHL with a .806 winning percentage at home under Hiller.
— The Kings are 45-31-4-8 against the Sharks all time at home.
— David Rittich reached the 200 games played mark Tuesday night in Vegas, making him just the eighth Czech-born goaltender in NHL history to reach that feat.
— To the surprise of nobody, captain Anze Kopitar leads Kings skaters in points against the Sharks with 70 points in 93 career games. He also leads all active NHL skaters in points vs San Jose and currently sits fourth in points all-time when looking at skaters vs. San Jose.
— Finally, here’s a fun stat we’ll try to keep track of moving forward. Last season, the MM graphics team had an almost uncanny ability to randomly select a player for our daily lineup article, and then said player would seem to score a goal. It’s become such an inside joke, that we’re now going to see how this holds up in 2024-25. Thus far, the Kings have played seven games, and the player featured has scored three times, for a 43% conversion rate. A goal from Kopitar tonight would push it up to 50%. And, for those curious, the three previous goals came from Alex Turcotte (Toronto), Mikey Anderson (Anaheim), and Warren Foegele (Vegas) — which is also three of the past four games.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Sharks
If there are any key changes during morning skate or pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Danault – Moore
Foegele – Turcotte – Laferriere
Jeannot – Thomas – Lewis
Anderson – Burroughs
Gavrikov – Spence
Edmundson – Clarke
Rittich (starter)
Copley
Likely scratches: (F) Lee (D) Englund, Jones
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 7:30 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
San Jose is coming off a 3-1 loss in Anaheim on Tuesday. Here is how they lined up for that contest:
Eklund – Granlund – Toffoli
Gushchin – Wennberg – Zetterlund
Goodrow- W. Smith – Dellandrea
Kostin – Sturm – Kunin
Walman – Ceci
Ferraro – Rutta
Thrun – Thompson
Blackwood
On This Day in Kings History
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