11/3 Preview – Quick In, Skaters Stay The Same + First Line Lias & McLellan’s Morning Quotes

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (3-5-1) vs. St. Louis Blues (6-1-0)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Wednesday, November 3 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: STAPLES Center – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: TNT – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The homestand continues for the LA Kings, with the St. Louis Blues in town to conclude the season series between the two teams.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings and Blues will square off for the third time this season, after St. Louis took the first two meetings in Missouri in late-October. Entering tonight’s action, defenseman Alex Edler leads all Kings skaters with two points (0-2-2) from the two games versus the Blues so far this season. Forwards Dustin Brown, Carl Grundstrom and Alex Iafallo each have a goal. Forward David Perron leads St. Louis skaters with four goals and five points, while defenseman Torey Krug has a team-leading four assists against the Kings.

KINGS VITALS: After a pair of matinee games this weekend, we’re back on schedule here today with morning skate at Toyota Sports Performance Center. The Kings hit the ice with a group of 19 available skaters and two goaltenders in advance of the rematch against St. Louis.

Goaltender Jonathan Quick was the first goaltender off this morning for the Kings, making it the second straight game that he will start. Quick was stellar in his first outing against St. Louis this season, with 32 saves on 34 shots, though the Kings were not able to score in a 3-0 defeat. All-time, Quick is 12-16-3 against the Blues, but has a .913 save percentage and a 2.51 goals against average.

Looking at the skaters, Todd McLellan indicated that we would not see any lineup changes from the group that featured on Sunday versus the Sabres. That indicated that Austin Strand will be the lone healthy scratch, while Andreas Athanasiou will not make his season debut, as indicated yesterday.

Therefore, the expectation at this time is the same group of 18 from Sunday’s win over Buffalo, in a similar alignment to how they ended that game. Todd McLellan confirmed yesterday that Lias Andersson will get an opportunity on the left wing with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, a trio that was put together during the third period versus the Sabres. More on Andersson below.

On the backend, Austin Strand was recalled from AHL-Ontario yesterday morning, and is an option on the backend, though today’s skate indicates we’ll expect to see the same group of six as Sunday.

Here’s a projected lineup for tonight’s game –

Andersson – Kopitar – Brown
Kempe – Danault – Iafallo
Grundstrom – Kupari – Moore
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev

Edler – Clague
Maatta – Roy
Bjornfot – Anderson

Quick
Petersen

BLUES VITALS: After downing the then 5-1-1 Buffalo Sabres on Sunday, the Kings will face another of the NHL’s hottest starting teams in the St. Louis Blues. St. Louis enters tonight’s action at 6-1-0 on the season, including a pair of victories over the Kings. At +14, the Blues possess the Western Conference’s best goal differential, and the third-best in the NHL, entering tonight’s action.

The expectation tonight will be that goaltender Jordan Binnington gets the nod between the pipes for the Blues. Binnington played in the 7-3 victory over the Kings earlier this season, bringing a 1-0-0 head-to-head record into tonight’s game. All-time versus LA, Binnington is 5-4-1 with a .916 save percentage and a 2.44 goals against average, with the overall meetings bolstered by the eight times the teams played last season.

Per Jim Thomas of the Post-Dispatch, here’s how St. Louis lined up this morning –

Kyrou – Schenn – Perron
Barbashev – Thomas – Tarssenko
Saad – Bozak – Buchnevich
Neal – Joshua – Kostin

Scandella – Parayko
Krug – Faulk
Walman – Bortuzzo

Binnington
Hofer

Similar to the Kings, the Blues will be missing a couple of players due to COVID Protocol, most notably their number-one center in Ryan O’Reilly. Former King Kyle Clifford and backup goaltender Ville Husso are also currently in protocol.

First Line Lias
As the lines finished on Sunday, Lias Andersson will flank Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown on the top unit tonight.

For Andersson, the coaching staff does not see his role changing but rather his place in the lineup. Todd McLellan wants to see his young winger play the exact same way, just in an elevated role, with better linemates.

“I don’t think Lias’ role will change, I think his position in the lineup changes, we just want to see him continue his role,” McLellan said this morning. “Lias is a pretty intelligent player, he wins a lot of free or loose puck battles and while he’s in the battle, he has a tendency to make a play coming out of it. Those are real good things for us. He’s got to be responsible defensively which he is for the most part. Two games under his belt now, so he should be feeling better about what’s going on around him. I don’t think he’s changing anything, it’s just his spot in the lineup is different.”

For his part, Andersson understands both the situation he’s stepping into, and the players he will be playing with. Regardless of his past linemates here with the Kings, playing with that group is different, and it’s an opportunity for Andersson to get an extended look, with extended minutes, higher in the lineup. It’s not an opportunity he’s taking for granted.

“I think everyone in the world knows that those two guys are a different type of players than 85 percent of the NHL,” he said this morning. “To be able to get a chance to play with them, I’m just happy to have them on my team and to call them linemates tonight will be fun. I’m just trying to do my thing, play my game, work hard for them and get them the puck as much as I can.”

Andersson’s story is well-told. As a top-ten draft pick, expectations were extremely high coming into the NHL, though his time with the New York Rangers did not go as planned for player or team.

His trade to the LA Kings presented a fresh start, and he’s certainly made the most of it so far, establishing himself as a hard-working, bottom-six forward, capable of contributing with some offense on top of his tenacity and other traits. Tonight, however, would be his first opportunity to showcase his skills in the Top 6. He reflected back on what his expectations as an 18-year-old might have been, and how he’s looking to make the most of his situation now that he’s been given that opportunity.

“I thought [I would be a Top 6 player] before I got drafted, but this is my first game in the NHL on the top two lines,” he said. “I haven’t played on the power play in the NHL that much, I haven’t played top minutes, I’m just trying to show that I belong here, up in the lineup, and trying to show my skillset that I know I have, combined with hard work and being a teammate.”

That humble nature that Andersson brings has shown itself to McLellan and the coaching staff. Andersson’s hard work and personality have found a great home here in LA.

“I only know Lias from the day he landed here, and I wouldn’t have a negative thing to say about attitude, work ethic, commitment, teammate,” McLellan said. “Not a single thing. You couldn’t pry one out of me when it comes to Lias.”

How all of those things potentially translate into a Top 6 role will play out later this evening.

Quick Hitters –

Todd McLellan on deviating from his goaltending rotation this evening
Both are really important. They have a tendency to push and the natural progression of where we are as an organization, with age and contracts, is that you want Cal Petersen to take over and away you go, but Quickie isn’t giving that back, and that’s the healthiest type of competition we could have amongst both of them. It’s good for the team and it’s good for Cal, it’s good for Jonathan. Would we like one of them to step up and really run with it? Of course we would, but the days of playing 70 games for a goaltender is probably non-existent.

On facing a team three times in the first ten games of the season
It’s odd. It doesn’t seem odd, because of last year’s schedule, but in a regular-season makeup, to play 30 percent of your games against one team in the first 10…I think Winnipeg and Anaheim have done it as well. It’s not even a story, we have to play them, regardless of when we play them. They got the best of us twice in their building and they’ve played well against anyone they’ve played against. It’s a good challenge for us after a couple wins.

McLellan and defenseman Matt Roy also weighed in on the league’s emphasis on cross-checking this season. Roy praised the communication of on-ice officials, in defining expectations with players, while McLellan believes that players are more aware of what is expected, and is happy to see the crack down in that area.

McLellan – I think it’s being called more, I do believe that some of the situations where it has been called were let go in the past. I think they’re sending a clear message that they’re not going to stand for it and we’ve got to accept that, and we do. I think the players are already understanding that there are some things they can’t get away with. Good for the league, great for the officials to have that support and be able to call it. So far, so good on players trying to change their habits.

Roy – It kind of comes into mind if you’re doing it too hard, you try not to take a penalty obviously. The refs are pretty good with talking to us on the ice, helping us know if it’s too hard. I’m still trying to figure all that out, and play accordingly.

Kings and Blues, coming up next at 7, not 730, from STAPLES Center!