Happy Thursday, Insiders!<\/p>\n
The Kings were back on the ice in a full-group capacity after an optional day yesterday. The entire team was at the rink yesterday, but most players used the gym for an off-ice workout, considering the three days before games. There was always going to be one highly optional day, if not a day off in there. Turned out to be yesterday, which sets the stage for two higher-intensity practices today and tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the Florida game was physical, 1-1, going into the third period and it was tight, they don\u2019t give you a lot of space and the physicality part of the game,\u201d Associate Coach Phil Housley said today. \u201cI thought it was good that we just did a recovery day, get a good workout, get a sweat, a stretch, whatever you needed to do to get ready for Saturday and come back. We had a good practice today, I thought there was good pace, we worked on some things that we\u2019re trying to improve and areas that we\u2019re trying to improve on. Three days of practice is going to be pretty tough on the guys and you\u2019re not only thinking now, you\u2019re thinking February just to keep the guys fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s skate was probably the most intensive of the week, as the Kings were on the ice for over an hour at Toyota Sports Performance Center. I\u2019d consider it to be a pretty hard practice, with some goal line to goal line sprints, as well as lots of stops and starts and lots of high-intensity drills, which also carried a focal point. There was a little bit of skating just to skate, with the sprints, but also a lot of skating woven into drills that had a focus on improving things within the game that the Kings feel need addressing. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the alignment we saw for today\u2019s skate \u2013<\/p>\n
Panarin \u2013 Kempe
Moore \u2013 Haula \u2013 Laferriere
Turcotte \u2013 Laughton \u2013 Armia
Lee \u2013 Helenius \u2013 Perry<\/p>\n
Dumoulin \u2013 Doughty
Edmundson \u2013 Clarke
Anderson \u2013 Ceci
Gustafsson<\/p>\n
Kuemper \/ Forsberg<\/p>\n
Of note \u2013 Forwards Quinton Byfield and Mats Zuccarello were both missing from the group. I don\u2019t have an update there right now, but I\u2019ll be sure to get one on both players from Peter Laviolette tomorrow, before the team flies to Vegas. <\/p>\n
With that in mind, all of what is listed above is an approximation. There was a ton of rotation, especially between the Panarin\/Kempe pairing and the three players who are on the fourth line. All three took reps with the big boys. I think the middle six is more accurate, but again, I think there was some rotation at times. The defensemen had Dumoulin, Doughty, Edmundson and Clarke in one color, with Anderson, Ceci and Gustafsson in another. Take from that what you will.<\/p>\n
All in all, this alignment lacks the necessary context. I\u2019ll get that for you tomorrow. <\/p>\n
Notes \u2013
\u2013 One thing I did find interesting though was that with no Zuccarello on the ice, Alex Laferriere was moved onto a line with Erik Haula and Trevor Moore.<\/p>\n
Again, there were 11 forwards, so take things with a grain of salt. But we started to see more of the Haula\/Laferriere pairing during the game against Florida. It was actually a lot more than I noticed during the game, in the moment. Haula\u2019s most regular linemate in that game was Laferriere, while Laferriere only played more with Zuccarello than he did with any other forward. They connected on the team\u2019s only goal in the first period, too. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s a great player, I got a few shifts last game with him and he\u2019s got great speed and he has great touch around the net,\u201d Haula said of Laferriere. \u201cNow we\u2019ve practiced together, so we\u2019ll keep building. Hopefully it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season, the Moore\/Laferriere combination was very effective together down the stretch. That was with Quinton Byfield at center, though. A different look with Haula, but the Moore\/Laferriere chemistry should remain. Haula has had a nice start to the season and I think he\u2019s a guy who contributes in a lot of different ways. In a perfect world, that\u2019s a heck of a third line. With the Kings fully healthy, it probably is the third line. See how things shake out, but I don\u2019t mind that look, even if it\u2019s just for practice without Zuccarello on the ice. <\/p>\n
\u2013 Yesterday\u2019s skate was optional for the team and most players opted for a workout in the gym. I\u2019m honestly surprised there were three full days at the rink overall, but perhaps that comes with the territory of three defeats to open a season. I thought it might come today, with a full skate yesterday, but sports science in a lot of ways suggests that it actually makes the most sense for team performance to take rest and recovery right after a game, before dialing it back in closer to the next game. Either way, yesterday was a small group on the ice, with most players working in the gym or with a trainer to get what they needed. <\/p>\n
One player who took the ice though was defenseman Brandt Clarke, and he did so coming off a game that, by his own admission, was below his standards including the turnover that led to Florida\u2019s game-winning goal. He worked individually with Assistant Coach Chris Hajt, specifically focusing in on a few specific areas of his game with the puck. I think it\u2019s a positive reflection on a younger player who was unhappy with his game and went out to get the frustration out a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cA good opportunity to just work on stuff I want to work on, it was productive day,\u201d Clarke said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t too thrilled with the way I played [against Florida] overall, so I was like, let me get out there and just do what I want to do, touch pucks, and feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a response I think you like to see. If Clarke didn\u2019t feel that was what was best for him, it wouldn\u2019t be a knock on him, on a day when players had that choice. That we went out there, seemingly almost out of frustration, might help him to get a little bit of work in, while also maybe getting a game he didn\u2019t like behind him. New day today, focused on Vegas. <\/p>\n
\u2013 Was interested to hear from Joel Edmundson on his fight on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Edmundson dropped the gloves with Garnet Hathaway, who is known for having that in his game. From that point on, I felt like Edmundson was one of the more noticeable Kings players on the ice. In total, only four players were even or better in shot attempts and Edmundson was the only defenseman on that list. <\/p>\n
Did he think the fight had anything to do with that?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does for sure, I feel like I\u2019ve kind of always had that feeling after a fight,\u201d Edmundson said. \u201cThe game kind of slows down for you, the ice feels bigger, you\u2019ve got more room. It\u2019s always kind of felt that way for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Kings are constructed within the 11\/7, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a fighter necessarily within that group. I don\u2019t think that there needs to be, but Edmundson will stand up and do it, as will Corey Perry, even if that\u2019s not their game. If it gets him going though, maybe we see it a bit more?<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I should do that more often,\u201d he ended, with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u2013 After today\u2019s practice we heard from Associate Coach Phil Housley for the first time in a general media scrum.<\/p>\n
We had Housley on All The Kings Men over the summer and I thought he offered up a lot of information. Today, with so many days in between games, it gave the chance to mix in a new voice on the interview front. We heard from Laviolette twice on Tuesday and yesterday. We\u2019ll hear from him tomorrow and twice on Saturday. Different Head Coaches have different policies on other coaches addressing the media and it\u2019s nice to see that with Laviolette, there is the chance to mix Housley into the mix as well, which allows for some more targeted questions on the defense. Would think we might see the same with Ray Whitney or Chris Hajt at some point down the line also. Housley, though, is the team\u2019s Associate Coach, Laviolette\u2019s number-two guy. He\u2019s been an NHL Head Coach before and has done plenty of media scrums, in a more robust hockey media market in Buffalo. So he knows the drill. <\/p>\n
Overall, the questions were mostly tailored towards the team\u2019s defensemen, which is Housley\u2019s number-one priority. He touched on a variety of different aspects of the game for those players, with how they are adjusting as a group to being able to generate more from the blueline, as well as Clarke\u2019s game and some thoughts on the contrasting nature of the first three games, stylistically. <\/p>\n
Full interview below \u2013<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Another full practice day tomorrow, before the team departs for Vegas. It doesn\u2019t get any easier. The Kings have had a mixed bag in Vegas in recent years. They\u2019ve had a few very memorable, statement wins. They\u2019ve also had some blowout defeats, memorable for different reasons. The schedule usually doesn\u2019t give you a win because you need one. Kings will have to earn it against the defending Western Conference champions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy Thursday, Insiders! The Kings were back on the ice in a full-group capacity after an optional day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-875799","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\/875799","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=875799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}