Happy Sunday, Insiders!

Thought today might be a day where change was afoot as it pertained to the forward lines and the power play. We got a little bit of it, though perhaps not always in the ways we might’ve thought there would be.

The Kings have scored just one goal in three of their last four games, the three buried in San Jose being the outlier. Two of those goals have come on special teams, one on the power play and one shorthanded. As such, the Kings have continued to seek further offensive production, though the changes today felt relatively minimal.

The shot attempts and scoring chances continue to be there – actually even more so at home – continue to be there. The goals just haven’t followed as of yet.

“We’ve been saying that for two weeks now, tonight’s the night, I think tonight will be the night when the dam breaks,” Jim Hiller said this morning. “I’ve mentioned it before, we’ve had nights where we’d had 80, 90 attempts……you think at some point, those nights, they’re going to go in, so we’re still waiting waiting on that. We’re confident it’s going to happen, but it feels like it should have happened already.”

He’s correct on the attempts and the Kings are sixth in the league this season in high-danger chances per/60 at all strengths. It’s got to go in the net though and it isn’t for the Kings.

After the Boston game, Jim Hiller spoke about Joel Armia earning a spot in the Top-9 with his play. Today, we saw Armia moved onto a line with Phillip Danault and Alex Laferriere, with Warren Foegele moving to the fourth line. Samuel Helenius took the first set of rushes with Foegele and forward Corey Perry, which puts Alex Turcotte as the odd-man out from the alignment we saw against the Bruins.

More on Helenius and potential changes to the lineup coming in tomorrow’s game preview. Here’s the 5-on-5 alignment, based on today’s practice –

Fiala – Byfield – Kempe
Moore – Kopitar – Kuzmenko
Armia – Danault – Laferriere
Foegele – Helenius – Perry

Anderson – Edmundson
Dumoulin – Clarke
Moverare – Ceci

Kuemper / Forsberg

For today, the focus should be on the power play, which I think is the larger point of emphasis here.

Jim Hiller said after the Boston game that the power play is costing the Kings games right now. This came after an 0-for-5 showing against the Bruins in a game that ended 1-1 through 60 minutes. Included in those five opportunities was 70 seconds of 5-on-3 time which came up empty, which could have swung the game the other way.

“We need to play better on the power play, that’s just such an important moment in the game,” forward Andrei Kuzmenko said. “Especially if you score, every game, maybe two goals, it’s a big moment for you. We understand this moment and we’ve got to play better. We work every day on the power play, we speak more about it. We [want to] be on the same pace as last season.”

Hiller spoke at length about the power play after the game. He spoke at length about the possibility of changes coming. I was personally pretty surprised to see no personnel changes to the first unit, but that doesn’t mean there were not systematic changes. The emphasis during drills during practice seemed to be focused on movement.

Kevin Fiala said after today’s practice that movement was a focal point in the locker room before practice, something to be expected come the game against Ottawa tomorrow night.

“We talked about the movement today, so we will be adding that in for sure,” he said.

Adrian Kempe started off as the man at the point, but as the Kings ran different looks, Kempe moved around, sometimes moving in closer towards the net, out to the right, other areas. Other times, he ran the point as he has all season. The main takeaway was that it was different.

When the Kings were at their best during Jim Hiller’s first season with the organization as an assistant coach, the power play thrived when the pieces moved around. Kempe, Fiala and Anze Kopitar were the three left-shot forwards in between a defenseman at the top and a man down low and they routinely switched places, moving around, creating confusion. We’ve seen a lot less of that movement here this season. Too often this season, players have felt almost glued to their positions. If that’s working, then why change it. But when it’s not working, players in positions in’t leading to goals, then maybe it’s time to shake it up. Perhaps today could mark the change of that.

“We could use a little bit more movement for sure,” Hiller said. “Bottom line is to get the puck to the front of the net with Perrs in front of the net. You can get it there in different ways. You don’t want to just have one guy there, you’d like to have two and in a perfect world, you’d have someone coming down the back side so you’ve got three. Easier said than done, and the puck has to be delivered at the right time, into the right spot too. There’s a lot that goes into it and we’re confident those guys can get it done.”

The entire top power play unit was on the ice before the full group and also later than the majority of the group, working on in-zone concepts. Fiala and Kuzmenko specifically stayed on for awhile after, working on a few different things. Both are players who are always working on aspects of their game and today was no different. But, considering the team’s lack of offense, specifically on the power play, it’s good to see the work being put in.

Kuzmenko used the word “connection” as being important for that unit. Meaning that everyone understands and is connected on the play being made, but also already understanding the next play after that. He’s a guy who is capable of processing plays ahead of them actually happening. Something he feels could help, is having everyone thinking the same way, understanding that the goals are there, two plays later, and being on the same page in executing in those moments.

“We made some more plays [in today’s practice], with better connection, connection is so important on the power play,” Kuzmenko said. “That means everyone understands it and the next decision, what is everyone [going to do]. We’ll keep going, we’ll work hard and hopefully get better and better and better.”

Fiala added that a day off was good to get it out of his head, and probably for the team as a whole. Starting fresh today is good, “back to basics” as he called it. He preached a positive mindset, understanding that it’s eventually going to go in, which is similar to what Anze Kopitar talked about after the game on Friday.

As Hiller said at the top though, there’s been that feeling of it coming for awhile now offensively.

So, it’s got to be about what is, not what could be. While, as I noted, I thought the Kings would make more drastic personnel changes, seeing noticeable systematic changes is still something to take note of. I guess we’ll see. Proof will be in the pudding. The Kings do have Brandt Clarke as a PP1 option if they get away from the five forwards and plenty of options on PP2 who could shake things up. Getting Kempe into more scoring situations has to be an objective, in one form or another. He’s averaged 35 goals over the last four seasons and he’s a player capable of scoring on the power play.

With offense hard to come by, now’s the time to get it done.