Busy day on the roster front.<\/p>\n
For starters, Head Coach Jim Hiller said after today\u2019s practice that forward Anze Kopitar and goaltender Darcy Kuemper are both day-to-day with lower-body injuries. From Hiller\u2019s comments throughout his availability today, sounds like Kopitar is a game-time decision for tomorrow against the Penguins. Hiller indicated that the Kings have not gone down the road yet of how the lineup might look without Kopitar, indicating that the Kings are \u201chopeful there\u2019s a chance he could play\u201d and that the Kings will likely find out tomorrow around game time. So, with that still in play, nothing to share just yet on how a potential missed game would impact the lineup.<\/p>\n
With Kuemper, it sounds as if Anton Forsberg could get the net tomorrow, although coming off consecutive starts for Kuemper, that might\u2019ve been the plan either way. More to come on Forsberg tomorrow, in the game preview, but in chatting with him briefly after today\u2019s practice, he understands this is an opportunity for him to show what he can do, while also expressing that the circumstances are not how he\u2019d want them. Hiller pointed to Forsberg\u2019s experience, agreeing that it\u2019s not under ideal circumstances, but he believes Forsberg will be ready when called upon. <\/p>\n
So, will have to wait until tomorrow for sure. Both players haven\u2019t been officially ruled out, but I\u2019d bank more on Kopitar playing than Kuemper based on Hiller\u2019s availability today. <\/p>\n
If Kuemper is unable to go, backing Forsberg up will likely be Pheonix Copley, who was reacquired today from the Tampa Bay Lightning for future considerations. <\/p>\n
The timing kind of worked here, didn\u2019t it? When Tampa Bay had an injury in net earlier this month, the Lightning claimed Copley off waivers, when the Kings hoped to loan him to the AHL\u2019s Ontario Reign. With Kuemper\u2019s short-term injury, it opened the door for the Kings to need a backup goaltender. Erik Portillo was recalled this morning from the Ontario Reign and practiced with the Kings today, but after the Copley trade, he was re-assigned to the Reign. While Portillo is more than capable of the opportunity, he does not need waivers to be assigned to the AHL so it makes more sense to have Copley on the NHL roster right now, especially considering Kuemper\u2019s short-term injury during a time when the schedule is light on games. Should Copley have been placed on waivers by Tampa Bay, and no team claimed him, the Kings could have placed a claim to get Copley back and assign him to the AHL. Simply trading for Copley and keeping him on the NHL roster eliminated the risk in that process. <\/p>\n
With the day-to-day timelines, we\u2019re taking things, well, day-by-day. The Kings have an open spot on their NHL roster and can carry three goaltenders without placing Kuemper on injured reserve. Should that become necessary, they could potentially move Kuemper to IR if needed with a retroactive designation, depending on the exact timeline of the injury. A player going on IR means a minimum of seven days out of the lineup, which would mean that if he were to be placed on IR, Kuemper would miss the games against Pittsburgh and Carolina for sure, if it was retroactive to Monday\u2019s game. For now, that move has not happened, but it is an option if needed over the next few days. <\/p>\n
So, TLDR, Kopitar and Kuemper day-to-day, lower body injuries. Copley acquired from Tampa Bay. Portillo recalled and then reassigned. Kings have 23 on their active roster as of today.<\/p>\n
On that front, though, there was a player on the ice today who is not on the active roster and that\u2019s Corey Perry!<\/p>\n
For the first time since knee surgery in September, Perry participated in a full-team practice. Perry has been skating on his own for 10 days now and today, he progressed to a full-team practice in a red, non-contact jersey. Great signs to see him back on the ice. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo specific timeline, but great to see him out there today,\u201d Hiller said of Perry. \u201cHe\u2019s been chomping at the bit, so he was ready. He obviously took some line rushes, kept him out of contact, but a really good day for him and let\u2019s just see where it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hiller said that as of now, no decisions have been made as to whether or not Perry would travel with the team next week to begin a five-game trip. He also said that there\u2019s not a specific target number he has in mind, more generally speaking, for a player in terms of practices hit before he\u2019s able to play. It\u2019s dependent, person by person, on the type of injury, the length of the absence, the lineup as it\u2019s currently assembled. So, it\u2019s not just practice three times and you\u2019ll play or anything like that. Lots of factors that go into it. Perry is currently about four and a half weeks removed from a 6-8 week timetable, so he\u2019s still probably not all the way there. The Kings are getting good minutes from their fourth line right now as well, so there\u2019s no need to rush him back. <\/p>\n
Still, today was very positive for Perry, for sure, and for his teammates as well. Warren Foegele played with Perry in Edmonton and was really happy to see him back on the ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome, he\u2019s such a smart player, lots of leadership he brings, experience, he\u2019s a great teammate, it\u2019s good to see him back out there,\u201d Foegele said of Perry. \u201cWe miss him but we know he\u2019s almost on his way back.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s about the size of it. Lots of updates from today, Insiders. <\/p>\n
Hoping for short-term situations with Kopitar and Kuemper, for sure. Keep an eye out tomorrow on morning skate to see if Kopitar is on the ice. He\u2019s typically a regular in the morning on gamedays that are not back-to-back, though he could opt to rest up for tomorrow evening as well. Could be a true gametime decision there to keep an eye on. Same goes for Kuemper\u2019s status. Will follow up tomorrow morning with updates as they surface!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Busy day on the roster front. For starters, Head Coach Jim Hiller said after today\u2019s practice that forward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-228123","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\/228123","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=228123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}