Happy Sunday, Insiders!<\/p>\n
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\u2019ve thought there would be.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The shot attempts and scoring chances continue to be there \u2013 actually even more so at home \u2013 continue to be there. The goals just haven\u2019t followed as of yet. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been saying that for two weeks now, tonight\u2019s the night, I think tonight will be the night when the dam breaks,\u201d Jim Hiller said this morning. \u201cI\u2019ve mentioned it before, we\u2019ve had nights where we\u2019d had 80, 90 attempts\u2026\u2026you think at some point, those nights, they\u2019re going to go in, so we\u2019re still waiting waiting on that. We\u2019re confident it\u2019s going to happen, but it feels like it should have happened already.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s correct on the attempts and the Kings are sixth in the league this season in high-danger chances per\/60 at all strengths. It\u2019s got to go in the net though and it isn\u2019t for the Kings. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
More on Helenius and potential changes to the lineup coming in tomorrow\u2019s game preview. Here\u2019s the 5-on-5 alignment, based on today\u2019s practice \u2013<\/p>\n
Fiala \u2013 Byfield \u2013 Kempe
Moore \u2013 Kopitar \u2013 Kuzmenko
Armia \u2013 Danault \u2013 Laferriere
Foegele \u2013 Helenius \u2013 Perry<\/p>\n
Anderson \u2013 Edmundson
Dumoulin \u2013 Clarke
Moverare \u2013 Ceci<\/p>\n
Kuemper \/ Forsberg<\/p>\n
For today, the focus should be on the power play, which I think is the larger point of emphasis here. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to play better on the power play, that\u2019s just such an important moment in the game,\u201d forward Andrei Kuzmenko said. \u201cEspecially if you score, every game, maybe two goals, it\u2019s a big moment for you. We understand this moment and we\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019t mean there were not systematic changes. The emphasis during drills during practice seemed to be focused on movement. <\/p>\n
Kevin Fiala said after today\u2019s practice that movement was a focal point in the locker room before practice, something to be expected come the game against Ottawa tomorrow night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about the movement today, so we will be adding that in for sure,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
When the Kings were at their best during Jim Hiller\u2019s 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\u2019ve seen a lot less of that movement here this season. Too often this season, players have felt almost glued to their positions. If that\u2019s working, then why change it. But when it\u2019s not working, players in positions in\u2019t leading to goals, then maybe it\u2019s time to shake it up. Perhaps today could mark the change of that. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe could use a little bit more movement for sure,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cBottom 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\u2019t want to just have one guy there, you\u2019d like to have two and in a perfect world, you\u2019d have someone coming down the back side so you\u2019ve got three. Easier said than done, and the puck has to be delivered at the right time, into the right spot too. There\u2019s a lot that goes into it and we\u2019re confident those guys can get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s lack of offense, specifically on the power play, it\u2019s good to see the work being put in.<\/p>\n
Kuzmenko used the word \u201cconnection\u201d 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe made some more plays [in today\u2019s practice], with better connection, connection is so important on the power play,\u201d Kuzmenko said. \u201cThat means everyone understands it and the next decision, what is everyone [going to do]. We\u2019ll keep going, we\u2019ll work hard and hopefully get better and better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, \u201cback to basics\u201d as he called it. He preached a positive mindset, understanding that it\u2019s eventually going to go in, which is similar to what Anze Kopitar talked about after the game on Friday. <\/p>\n
As Hiller said at the top though, there\u2019s been that feeling of it coming for awhile now offensively.<\/p>\n
So, it\u2019s 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\u2019ll 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\u2019s averaged 35 goals over the last four seasons and he\u2019s a player capable of scoring on the power play. <\/p>\n
With offense hard to come by, now\u2019s the time to get it done. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy Sunday, Insiders! Thought today might be a day where change was afoot as it pertained to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-310326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310326","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=310326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}