12/14 Preview – Quick’s workload, Maatta in, Doughty on facing TB, Lizotte skates

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (12-10-4) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (17-6-4)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Tuesday, December 14 @ 4:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Amalie Arena – Tampa, FL
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings return to action this evening, as they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning to begin a four-game road trip.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings enter this evening’s action against Tampa Bay in hopes of snapping a five-game losing streak here at Amalie Arena, and an eight-game losing streak against the Lightning overall. The Kings last defeated the Lightning at any venue in December 2016, and last won in this building in February 2016. These teams last met during the 2019-20 season, a pair of tight wins for Tampa Bay, with Dustin Brown finding the scoresheet in each game.

KINGS VITALS: Tonight’s game begins a gauntlet of a road trip, with four of the league’s top teams on the docket in consecutive order. The four opponents on this current trip have a combined record of 71-23-15 so far this season and account for four of the league’s seven highest point totals.

Jonathan Quick did not skate this morning, which, from recent experience, means he is expected to make his third consecutive start this evening. If that is indeed the case, it would mark the first time this season a Kings goaltender has started three straight games. In his NHL career, Quick is 6-5-2 against the Lightning, from 14 games played, with a solid .921 save percentage and a 2.24 goals-against average.

“We’re well aware of Quickie and his workload, how much he needs and doesn’t need,” Todd McLellan said this morning. “We rely a lot on Jonathan himself and Bill Ranford, they have such a good relationship that we get the information we need. When it comes to rest, both mental and physical, the schedule has been friendly to us over the last little bit, it’s going to get a lot busier now, we’ve had a lot of two-day breaks between games where individuals could rest. They may be traveling, but at least they’re not exerting themselves in practice or on the ice. We are aware of that and we’ll try to manage it as well as we can.”

Today’s morning skate was optional for the Kings, meaning we won’t know exactly what the team’s lineup will look like until game time. The expectation, however, is that the Kings will not make any lineup changes between how they lined up in the win over Minnesota and tonight’s game against Tampa Bay, though you know what they say about best-laid plans.

Speaking with McLellan this morning, he did not commit to any line changes one way or the other. For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up last time out, with the swap of Olli Maatta in for the injured Alex Edler accounted for –

Kempe – Kopitar – Brown
Iafallo – Danault – Arvidsson
Athanasiou – Kupari – Kaliyev
Lemieux – Moore – Grundstrom

Anderson – Doughty
Maatta (Edler) – Roy
Bjornfot – Durzi

Quick
Petersen

LIGHTNING VITALS: Tampa Bay recently saw their five-game winning streak snapped, with a 4-0 loss against Ottawa on Saturday. The Lightning have yet to lose two games in a row in regulation this season.

The Lightning also held an optional morning skate today, which gives us less indication as to their lineup. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has been the workhorse between the pipes for the hosts so far this season. In his career against the Kings, Vasilevskiy is 5-2-0 from eight career appearances, sporting a .922 save percentage and a 2.68 goals-against average.

Per Joe Smith of The Athletic, forward Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov remain out of the lineup, and will not play tonight. Forward Anthony Cirelli and defenseman Zach Bogosian are on track for tonight, per Tampa Bay Head Coach Jon Cooper, per Smith. Listed below is the team’s projected lineup, via Bryan Burns of TampaBayLightning.com, though one forward is missing –

Forwards
Ondrej Palat – Steven Stamkos – Taylor Raddysh
Alex Killorn – Ross Colton – Mathieu Joseph
Pat Maroon – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
Gabriel Fortier – Riley Nash – Boris Katchouk

Defensemen
Victor Hedman – Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh – Zach Bogosian
Fredrik Claesson – Cal Foote

Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Brian Elliott

Even without Kucherov and Point, the Lightning still present a difficult foe. Any team led by Steven Stamkos on the first line and Victor Hedman on the first defensive pairing is a formidable one. Tampa Bay still has terrific pieces in Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn up front, and Ryan McDonagh on the backend.

Notes –

Facing The Best
Make no mistake about it, when it comes to matching up against the best players in the world, there’s a little extra fire for Drew Doughty.

We saw and heard it in Edmonton, squaring off against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, with the Kings and Doughty in particular taking pride in keeping those players off the scoresheet. Here in Tampa, Point and Kucherov aren’t in the lineup, which takes away two of those star players, but Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman both fit the bill and that gets the competitive juices going for number eight.

“Of course,” Doughty said, when asked. “Tampa Bay, two cups now, it’s a team that we want to be up there with, they have some great players. I got drafted with Stamkos, so that’s always, not a rivalry and I love Stammer, but he’s a great player and I have to shut him down if I can. I get up for these games, and playing against Hedman, who’s been one of the best d-men in the league for some time. It’s my job to try and outplay him tonight, so I’ll try to do that.”

As the Kings have settled in this season, Doughty believes they’ve started to create an identity of being a tough team to play against. He noted similar thoughts after the game in Edmonton, and he reinforced them here this morning.

The defensive structure has always been there, but adding an element of playing faster, both with and without the puck, has been a welcomed addition this season.

“I think our identity is just a gritty team to play against,” Doughty added. “We’ve gotten faster, that’s something we haven’t had, being fast with and without the puck. I think we’re frustrating to play against because we are good defensively and we have great goaltending. I guess that would be our identity, a fast team that is annoying to play against. Our system frustrates other teams because we’re pretty good at it, so I’d say that’s the identity. We want that identity to grow and hopefully put more pucks in the net.”

After Alex
The Kings will need to move forward without a part of that identity, in Alex Edler, one of their steadiest defensemen thus far this season. Replacing him in the lineup this evening will be Olli Maatta, with Christian Wolanin also an option for the Kings moving forward.

“It will be Olli Maatta, he’ll start there tonight, and we’ll see how the pairs go,” McLellan said. “I think any time you lose a consistent pair, and you bring a player in, in Olli’s case that hasn’t played in five or six games, you have to feel your way through it. Trent Yawney will take care of that, obviously on the road we don’t get the last change, which makes it a little bit more difficult. I wouldn’t say that, when you throw our defensemen up on the TV screen tonight, if you tune in a little bit late, it might change.”

Maatta steps onto a pairing that had created chemistry, between Edler and Roy, as they formed together midway through the team’s seven-game winning streak earlier this season. That change was made during the Montreal game, with the duo going on to post some of the best analytical numbers that the Kings have seen from two defensemen this season. Regardless of who you’re putting in, that’s tough to replace.

“That pair developed some chemistry,” McLellan said. “Initially, at the beginning of the year, we didn’t have those two together. The way that injuries evolved, ice time began to get issued, they had good chemistry and they complemented each other. They both have a physical aspect, they can both more pucks, they both like to shoot it, I think Royzie is leading our team in shots on goal from the backend. Alex was always willing to get the puck through, not always with a bomb, but he would often look to shoot to create for others, which was smart. They did compliment each other at both ends of the rink.”

It’s easy to forget though that before the Edler – Roy pairing was united during a pair of victories, it was Maatta and Roy that were paired together, as the Kings won five consecutive games, including a win over another of the league’s top teams in Toronto, and on the road at that. Maatta and Edler are different players, but there is at least some familiarity between the Finnish blueliner and Roy, which should make things just a bit easier.

Blake Erie
Lastly, while no word on whether or not he could play this evening, forward Blake Lizotte re-joined the team today in Tampa Bay. Lizotte remains in COVID Protocol, but took his first practice back with the Kings this morning, a good sign as he inches closer to his return to the roster.

Speaking with McLellan this morning, he indicated that, at this time, Lizotte remains on the non-roster list, but has been cleared to resume “exercising”. If the Kings looked to activate Lizotte, they would need to make a corresponding roster move, likely at the forward position, as they currently sit at the 23-man roster limit.

At this time, no roster moves have been announced regarding Lizotte and this article will be updated if that changes.

Kings and Lightning, a four o’clock faceoff on Pacific time, coming up next!