Angeles Analysis – Halfway Through Training Camp

Insiders, we’ve reached the midway point, and the first off day, of training camp.

The Kings have had four full-team practices, four exhibition games and one Black & White showcase over the first nine days of camp. As of today’s writing, we’re nine days away from the end of training camp and 12 days away from Opening Night at STAPLES Center.

As someone covering the team, this is my first full training camp during a season that has exhibition games. And, when you have the exhibition games within the larger context of training camp, it leads to some conflicting emotions.

How excited do you get when you see the systems function as intended in a game setting, or how much stock do you put into it when they break down? When an individual who is fighting for a job makes a few nice plays, it’s easy to quickly anoint him a role, before you think back to others who have produced, or impressed, during preseason play, only to not be able to replicate that same level when the games count for real. The same can be said of a player who maybe leaves you underwhelmed at this stage in the season, but has some credit in his account, so to speak. Do you give a full pass, or is there cause for concern?

When we look at, say, Vladimir Tkachev, do we expect him to play more minutes than Anze Kopitar during a regular-season game, as he did last night, or log top-unit PP time, as he’s done over the last two games? It’d be a heck of a return if he did, but odds are, if he breaks the opening night lineup, he won’t be in the same situations he’s been in during the preseason. The context is important, and players being able to succeed in the roles they’ll ultimately be slotted into is equally so.

That’s not to say that a player like Tkachev hasn’t been impressive, because he has been, and that goes beyond the guy writing this article. Todd McLellan used terms such as poise, creativity and a “sense of what might happen two or three moves ahead” when discussing Tkachev.

“We talk about players, they’re either playing chess or checkers and Tkach is playing chess for sure.”

The point I’m trying to make here is that there’s a fine line you have to draw. It’s okay to be excited when Tkachev has two nice assists, or when Lias Andersson scores in back-to-back games. These are good things, from players who are in that “backs against the wall” position, who you want to see make these types of impacts during the preseason.

The question for McLellan and his staff becomes, when you look at the openings on the final roster, how do you ultimately envision the makeup of your team beyond your key players. What types of skills, what types of players, what qualities do you value in those roles and how best do you position the personnel at your disposal to fill them.

“I think there are groups of players that give you different ingredients,” McLellan said. “There’s some physicality to Lemieux, and his group, Tkachev is smaller, skilled, so there are different ingredients that come into play and we have to build a team that way. If we’re talking about the bottom six, or the fourth line, what do we want it to look like, what’s the identity it might have, do penalty killers come from that situation, are you a shot blocker, do you provide physicality, can you win faceoffs? You don’t have to be a top scorer to play, but you better bring something that you hang your hat on, and you look down the bench and say get out there and do it. If you’re just vanilla, you just do everything kind of average, I’m not sure that it’s going to work. Different ingredients will allow us to pick our roster.”

I used this quote yesterday, but I wanted to bring it back today because I think it’s important when you talk about the makeup of the roster, and the different players battling for these final positions. The player best suited to replace say Anze Kopitar or Phillip Danault, if they were out of the lineup for any reason, might not be the same player who is best suited to center the fourth line. Same could be said for filling a Top 6 winger role, versus a fourth-line winger role.

With a pretty staggering number of players who have a legitimate shout at making an NHL roster still in play, McLellan has just about every type of player at his disposal.

Hard-working center? See Anderson-Dolan, Jaret and Lizotte, Blake. Goal-scoring winger? I’ll show you Arthur Kaliyev and Martin Frk. Forechecking focus? How about Carl Grundstrom and Austin Wagner. Toughness and agitation? Brendan Lemieux checks those boxes. Fast skating and up-and-coming? Samuel Fagemo and Rasmus Kupari are in the wings, making their case.

That shortlist doesn’t even factor in the unique skillset that Quinton Byfield possesses, or the fact that guys like Tkachev and Andersson are still working themselves to earn positions on the roster.

When it comes to competition, this camp has had it in spades. Now, as we now approach an expected roster cutdown before the Kings are back on the ice tomorrow, we’ll see where the organization slots certain players as they approach the submission of an opening-night roster.

There are a lot of interesting storylines that we’ve already provided some depth on. The offseason acquisitions, and how they’ve slotted in, plus how the leaders on this team have received the moves made during the offseason. A desire to play more aggressively this season, and what that means to the players. The need for internal improvements, and how younger players who were here last season can grow into larger roles.

There will be more interesting storylines to come as we get closer to a final roster, which should continue to become clearer in the coming days, and we’ll be all over them here on LAKI. Until then, Happy Saturday, and we’ll see where the cards fall with upcoming roster moves.