The LA Kings hit the ice today for practice in El Segundo, before getting on the plane to Winnipeg to begin a two-game trip.<\/p>\n
Full group on the ice today for the active roster. 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders, aligned identically to how the Kings looked in the games against Colorado and Vegas. Today\u2019s lineup shown below \u2013 <\/p>\n
Kuzmenko \u2013 Kopitar \u2013 Kempe
Fiala \u2013 Byfield \u2013 Laferriere
Foegele \u2013 Danault \u2013 Moore
Malott \u2013 Turcotte \u2013 Armia
Helenius<\/p>\n
Anderson \u2013 Doughty
Edmundson \u2013 Clarke
Dumoulin \u2013 Ceci
Moverare<\/p>\n
Kuemper \/ Forsberg<\/p>\n
Additionally, forward Corey Perry and defenseman Kyle Burroughs continue to skate separately from the group. The pair was on the ice earlier this morning, skating together, as they both gear back towards an eventual return. Both players remain on injured reserve and have not yet made the jump towards even a non-contact return to the full group. Neither are expected to travel to Winnipeg, so we\u2019re still a bit off on that front for both players, as was previously reported. Will check back in next week when the Kings return home. <\/p>\n
In terms of those who are in the lineup, I don\u2019t see any reason at this stage in the season for the Kings to make drastic changes. Each line has scored, at least when you factor in special teams goals. If we\u2019re looking at the fourth line, which would be where the bulk of the changes might occur, Turcotte\u2019s major penalty aside, I think that line has played well and they got a deserved goal in Vegas. I wouldn\u2019t make any changes there, personally, and today\u2019s skate at least gives the impression the Kings won\u2019t for tomorrow\u2019s game. On the blueline, I don\u2019t see the Kings taking out a veteran player based off two games. So, the group above is what I think we\u2019ll see tomorrow. <\/p>\n
Jim Hiller has said now a couple of times that as he and the staff rewatched the Colorado game, they were happier with the defensive performance than initially thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a few mistakes, no question, but defensively, we were solid,\u201d he said. \u201cSince I\u2019ve been in the league, that\u2019s the least we\u2019ve given up against Colorado. What we didn\u2019t do is create.\u201d<\/p>\n
In looking back at the Vegas game, the Kings did create and they were happy with the offensive performance. <\/p>\n
In asking a couple of the players what they felt was just downright better about the Vegas game compared to the Colorado game, they were inclined to agree. <\/p>\n
Trevor Moore said that he felt the Kings skated better as forwards in the offensive zone. Think that was pretty apparent in the way the team played. His centerman, Phillip Danault, was inclined to agree.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got more offense out of it, instead of just defending or reading, we were more ready,\u201d Danault said. \u201cOur first period was better than the first one. The first game, it\u2019s hard to get uncomfortable and then once you do it, then your game is back.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s the part of the game that was unquestionably better. The Kings scored some really nice goals, combining work and tenacity with high-end skill. A stark improvement from the first game, when the Kings generated very little in the way of high-danger chances. <\/p>\n
The flip side of that, though, was the defensive side of the puck. Scorings chances rose from 19 against to 30 against from Game 1 to Game 2, while high-danger chances went from nine to 14. <\/p>\n
A lot of that came on the power play, with the extended, three-minute sequence really hurting the Kings, but the defending issues were more than just those three minutes. <\/p>\n
Jim Hiller said that in rewatching the game, there were only three times in the third period that the Golden Knights worked completely through the Kings through the neutral zone by their count. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey basically carried it, I think, three times through the neutral zone\u2026\u2026only three times, but it felt like 30 times.\u201d<\/p>\n
It did feel like 30 times and that\u2019s because, as Hiller continued on about, the Golden Knights scored on two of those three times and not only did they score but they scored in highlight-reel fashion, slicing and dicing through the Kings with ease, which is something Hiller called \u201cconcerning\u201d. <\/p>\n
It looked like the Kings worked on that a bit during practice today, defending against rushes through the neutral zone with speed as well as puck retrievals and clean breakouts against pressure coming out of the defensive zone. I think both of those areas of the game have been problematic early in the season. In both games, clean breakouts were hard to come by in moving pucks from the defensemen to the forwards with control and possession. The Vegas game emphasized the neutral zone more, but Colorado created their best looks off of those types of chances as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just felt we were a little loose, generally,\u201d Hiller added. \u201cNot as connected on our breakouts going the other way in the third period as we needed to be. That starts way up the ice. It starts with getting organized, so when you are in the position to break out, you come together and you get going the other way. We got a little disconnected there in the third period.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Winnipeg and Minnesota coming up, they aren\u2019t quite as high-flying as Colorado and Vegas but there are still some really high-end offensive players on those two teams. For a group that has prided itself on being strong in those types of situations, it\u2019s got to be an area of focus to clean up against the Jets and Wild. Correction, it will be an area of focus. But it has to be executed on the ice. Certainly one area of the game I\u2019ll be watching for beginning tomorrow.<\/p>\n
The Kings are just about to hit the sky, with Winnipeg, Manitoba on the horizon. Early puck drop tomorrow, 12:30 PM local and 10:30 AM Pacific. Quick in and out in the Great White North before heading to Minnesota for an evening off tomorrow, a practice day on Sunday and Monday evening\u2019s game against the Wild. Couple of good tests await! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Kings hit the ice today for practice in El Segundo, before getting on the plane to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-215496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}