The LA Kings hit the ice for a short team practice today before taking off for Colorado.

First things first, the Kings welcomed back goaltender Darcy Kuemper as a full participant for the first time since he suffered an upper-body injury earlier this month. Kuemper’s progression has been slow but steady. He began taking shots with goaltending coach Mike Buckley last week and steadily progressed to where he was able to join yesterday’s morning skate towards the end of the session, after a lot of the team had already left the ice.

While he is not expected to travel to Colorado and is not expected to be an option against the Avalanche, as Jim Hiller confirmed following today’s practice, Kuemper was a full participant today as the Kings hit the ice for 20-30 minutes at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo. Anton Forsberg, who is tomorrow’s expected starting goaltender, took the bulk of the repetitions at one end, while Kuemper rotated in with Pheonix Copley at the other end. Kuemper took more of the reps in his net and looked pretty comfortable in doing so, which is another good sign in his process of working towards a return to the lineup.

Hiller was asked today if Kuemper was at the equivalent stage of a skater returning to practice in a red, non-contact jersey. He’s ready to be in practice just not quite ready to play just yet, so the comparison is probably a pretty good one.

“What you look at is, is he taking part in a full practice,” Hiller said. “We’re not going to put goalies in red [non-contact] in a full practice, but we’re not letting them in a full practice until he’s ready. That would be the distinguishing factor.”

Hiller has been hesitant to commit to anything firm with Kuemper in terms of a timeline. Doesn’t want to give out any sort of misinformation or set expectations that can’t be met, considering an injury that the Kings do not want to rush in any way. Kuemper is the team’s “backbone” as Hiller has repeatedly said. The Kings certainly want him back, but they want him back through the end of the season, not just for tomorrow, if rushing him back could result in further injury.

Part of what makes it easier is how well Anton Forsberg has played in Kuemper’s absense. He hasn’t allowed more than three goals in a game since Kuemper went down. He actually hasn’t allowed more than three goals in a game since November 6, so we’re going back almost two months.

“The save at 2-0 was the save of the game and there were a handful of saves, he played extremely well,” Hiller said of Forsberg. “You look at the score and you think, oh, the goalie couldn’t have a lot of work. No, he was excellent.”

Precaution is the correct move here. When Kuemper is ready, he will return. Eyes on Tampa Bay for New Years Day as the next game after Colorado and we’ll go from there with where he is at in his process.

For today’s skate, the Kings looked exactly as they did last night against the Ducks, minus captain Anze Kopitar, who was given a maintenance day today in advance of the trip to Colorado. Per Hiller this morning, Kopitar is expected to travel and play against the Avalanche tomorrow evening at Ball Arena.

Here’s how the Kings aligned during today’s practice –

Laferriere – Malott – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Moore
Fiala – Turcotte – Kuzmenko
Armia – Helenius – Perry

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci
Moverare

Forsberg / Copley / Kuemper

Malott was the stand-in for Kopitar on the top line as he took rushes with Kempe and Laferriere. Otherwise, lineup looked very similar to what we saw last night. Score six goals, don’t make changes, pretty easy on that front.

The Kings certainly felt pretty good coming out of one of their best performances of the season in last night’s win over Anaheim.

Long time coming.

“That was a good one for us,” forward Quinton Byfield said this morning. “To score four in a period is good for anybody, but that felt good. Over our last games, we’ve had trouble scoring, but getting that early made everybody feel good about their game.”

The frustration coming in was pretty palpable.

The Kings hit the NHL’s holiday break with two of their worst losses of the season, scoring just three combined goals in defeats against Columbus and Seattle at home. Two games in which they had the chance to build a bit of momentum going into the break. Instead, they hit what was perhaps the lowest point of their season thus far. So, entering last night’s game against the Ducks, they needed a boost. They got it early with four goals in the opening period. Even if the game ended there, it would’ve been their second-highest offensive output at home this season. Their last four-goal period came on March 30 of last season against San Jose.

As said, a long time coming.

“The guys have been really frustrated, obviously, lack of scoring and lack of wins, so that jolt in the first period was huge for us,” defenseman Drew Doughty added. “Obviously we didn’t have a great second but the third was really good too. Hopefully we can carry that on and get a win against the best team in the league.”

That last sentence is now the challenge, now the focus.

The Kings are off to Colorado, with a flight that takes off shortly. Awaiting them on the road is the unquestioned best team in the NHL. More to come on that in tomorrow’s game preview.

For today, it was a relatively uneventful practice, minus the updates on Kuemper and Kopitar.

Kings put a good stretch of work in today on their penalty kill, a unit that was the number-one ranked group in the NHL during the month of November but has struggled a bit in December. Almost all of the practice on special teams has been power-play related, and that obviously makes sense, when you consider the struggles that unit has had all season. The PK has been middle of the pack and has flown a bit under the radar. Hasn’t cost the Kings in the way that the power play has.

A big part of it has been the penalties, as the Kings are tied for the NHL high in times shorthanded during the month of December. They were second in that department in October but were shorthanded the third-fewest times in the NHL in November. Shouldn’t exactly be all that surprising to see that the Kings performed so well in November compared to October and December. Cutting down the penalties will go a long way. But still, it was good to dive into the kill a bit today for a unit that could afford the refresh.

For now, it’s off to Colorado! Kings and Avalanche tomorrow evening at Ball Arena. Will have more on forward Alex Laferriere later in the day, coming off his most productive game in the NHL with last night’s hat trick.