Coming off their most dominant win of the season last night in Nashville, the Kings will now look to keep the momentum going as they get set to take on the red-hot Kirill Kaprizov and Minnesota Wild.
While it is sure to be one of the biggest challenges of the season thus far for LA, let’s also point out that coach Jim Hiller has his team playing their best hockey of 2024-25. It’s a small stretch, yet they have earned five out of six points in the three most recent games. Really, though, it’s the style of play that should be encouraging. Absent the third period vs. Chicago, Hiller has to like what he’s seen from his club in eight of nine periods. They’ve been really good in all areas.
On the other side of the ice tonight will be a Minnesota team who has won three straight and hasn’t lost in regulation at home. Throw in the fact LA played last night and had to travel to the Twin Cities, and this is anything but a layup.
On the bright side for Hiller, he is expected to turn to backup goaltender David Rittich, who has stellar career numbers against the Wild. In five career games against Minnesota, Rittich holds a 4-0-1 record with a .931 SV%. Those stats should look pretty promising heading into puck drop tonight.
On the flip side, Kings forward Alex Turcotte is unlikely to suit up after suffering what appeared to be an upper-body injury in last night’s contest in Nashville. After the young forward didn’t play in the third period, Hiller said he was “fine” after the game, yet he “wasn’t sure” when Turcotte would be able to check back in.
Obviously, everything next in this article is prefaced with the most important point — Turcotte’s health comes before anything else. That’s the most important thing here.
Even so, as a practical matter, Hiller still needs to produce a lineup for tonight.
If Turcotte is given the green light to play, he’d most likely resume his duties on the top line alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe. Hiller seems to have a winning combination right now, so there’s little reason to mess with it.
However, if he’s scratched vs. the Wild, Hiller’s options could come down to the lesser of two evils. With this being the final game of LA’s road trip, we wouldn’t expect them to recall anybody for the game in Minnesota. That leaves Andre Lee as the player to draw back in. The question becomes, would he put Lee on the top line in place of Turcotte (creating the least number of changes to his lineup) or would he prefer to put Lee is in his usual LW4 spot and move somebody else up top? If it’s the latter, again, to minimize the number of changes, that could mean Akil Thomas gets a shot with Kopitar and Kempe. He’s been a Swiss Army knife for Hiller and that move could make sense.
Rather than flip a coin here, we’re opting to go back a few games ago. Hiller tried Lee up in that spot once before. Kopitar was also complimentary of his brief time there. Because of this, we’re projecting Lee at LW1, even though it wouldn’t be that surprising to see Thomas get the spot.
Hiller will meet with the media roughly 90 minutes before game time tonight. Things will likely become clearer at that time.
Faber’s Fables
Just a few notes on Brock Faber here. With ‘fake news’ becoming such a popular phrase over the past few years, it seemed almost appropriate to chime in here.
For starters, Faber wasn’t traded because he refused to sign with the Kings. Nor did he not want to play in LA. Actually, Faber himself has already publicly shot all of this down. He was devastated at the time of the trade because he was eventually looking forward to signing with the Kings. He just really believed in his teammates at the University of Minnesota. They were considered heavy favorites to win the National Championship the following year and he wanted the opportunity to be part of that. As a native of the area, doing something like that as a member of the Golden Gophers hockey team was a childhood dream.
Why was he traded then?
It boils down to options at the time. The Kings were making a hockey trade with Minnesota. That’s what it was, similar to acquiring Mike Richards from Philadelphia for Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn. This isn’t to say that Kevin Fiala is Richards in any way whatsoever. It was a hockey trade, though. The deal wasn’t Kevin Stevens (then a Kings prosect) for Anders Hakansson in 1983.
At the time, Faber was one of a handful of right shot defensemen in LA’s system. There wasn’t going to be room for all of them to make the NHL. Does GM Rob Blake likely wish it was one of the other RHD who were included in the deal? Sure. That’s not how trades work, though. You have to give to get and it’s tough to look back on things after the fact.
In exchange for a top prospect at the time, LA received Fiala, the player Kopitar recently referred to as the Kings game-breaker.
Statistically Speaking
— The Kings return to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul for the first time since a 7-3 win over the Wild on Oct. 19, 2023. A staggering 13 of the Kings 18 skaters that night record at least one point in the contest.
— Kopitar leads the NHL in game winning goals, recording his third GWG of 2024-25 last night. It was also the 74th such goal of the captain’s career, breaking a tie with Robitaille (73) for sole possession of the most game-winning goals in franchise history.
— Defenseman Brandt Clarke enters tonight’s contest as the team leader in assists with 11, trailing only Colorado’s Cale Makar (16) and Winnipeg’s Josh Morrisey (13) for the most among blueliners this season.
— Unfortunately, the Wild sent forward Graeme Clarke – Brandt’s older brother by two years — down to AHL Iowa just a few days ago. The two have yet to play against each other in the NHL.
— Kaprizov has 17 points (10G, 7A) in 17 career games vs. Los Angeles.
— Over their last 33 matchups against each other, 16 games between Minnesota and LA have been decided by one goal.
— As noted in this section previously, we’re tracking a rather fun stat throughout the 2024-25 campaign. Our MM graphics team had an almost uncanny ability to randomly select a player for our daily lineup article last year, and then said player would seem to score a goal. Thus far in 2024-25, the Kings have played 13 games, and the player featured has scored six times, for a 46% conversion rate. A goal from Fiala tonight would push it back up to 50%.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Wild
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Lee – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Danault – Moore
Foegele – Byfield – Laferriere
Jeannot – Lewis – Thomas
Anderson – Spence
Gavrikov – Burroughs
Edmundson – Clarke
Kuemper (starter)
Rittich
Likely scratches: (F) Turcotte (D) Englund, Jones
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 5:00 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
Minnesota is coming off a 2-1 win over Toronto on Sunday. Here’s how they lined up for that contest:
Kaprizov – Rossi – Zuccarello
Johansson – Eriksson Ek – Boldy
Foligno – Gaudreau – Hartman
Lauko – Khusnutdinov – Trenin
Middleton – Faber
Brodin – Spurgeon
Chisholm – Bogosian
Gustavsson
On This Day in Kings History
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