Preview 12/18 – Goalies: Quick expected, Petersen to protocol, Ingham recalled + Wolanin Quotes

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (13-10-5) @ Carolina Hurricanes (20-7-1)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Saturday, December 18 @ 4:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: PNC Arena – Raleigh, NC
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings are back in action this evening, as they visit the Carolina Hurricanes for game three of four on their Southeastern road trip.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings and Hurricanes met once before this season, back in late-November at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, with Carolina winning 5-4. Adrian Kempe scored twice in that game, while Brendan Lemieux (1-1-2) also had a multi-point night. Blake Lizotte scored on that night, while Matt Roy and Anze Kopitar each tallied an assist in the narrow defeat.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings are now in the latter stages of their trip, with only games tonight and tomorrow evening against Washington still remaining. The Kings did not practice yesterday in Carolina, and returned to the ice this morning, with a full-team skate.

Not with the group today was Drew Doughty, who entered into COVID Protocol before the game against the Panthers. Additionally, goaltender Cal Petersen was added to COVID Protocol today, leaving the team with tonight’s presumed starter……

In his current run of form, as well as Petersen’s diagnosis, we’ll assume that Jonathan Quick is between the pipes tonight for the Kings. Quick has made four straight starts, and is 4-0-1 from five total starts so far this month. All-time versus the Hurricanes, Quick is 6-4-0, with a .918 save percentage and a 2.60 goals-against average. Jacob Ingham was recalled from the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits and will be tonight’s backup goalie.

The information regarding Petersen, and how quickly things can change, is indicative of where we’re at right now in the NHL. As we saw on Thursday, and as we’ve seen around the league over the last week, things can change on a dime, and things can change even between a scheduled morning skate and game time. With that in mind, take any projected lines, pairings or goaltenders with a grain of salt today. It’s all as of now, and it’s all subject to change.

Here’s how the team lined up in Florida on Thursday –

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

Maatta – Roy
Wolanin – Anderson
Bjornfot – Durzi

Quick

Going to leave this McLellan quote from the other day here –

“Obviously, everyone knows where we are with testing and that kind of stuff, we’re on standby,” he said. “We can talk about lines, who plays with who what and where, until the puck’s dropped, our group is on standby and the league is on standby.”

HURRICANES VITALS: The shorthanded Carolina Hurricanes enter tonight’s action coming off of an impressive win over the Detroit Red Wings, dressing an ECHL-number of players. In that league, teams are only permitted to dress 16 skaters, with Carolina skating to a 5-3 win with only 10 forwards and 6 defensemen at their disposal.

“Not surprising to me, and Florida as well,” McLellan said. “When the veteran players pick it up, and the kids get an opportunity, it can be like an avalanche, it just gets going. They played a really good game, they got some good minutes out of some really good players and their supporting cast played well. Their goaltender and their six best d-men, for the most part, are involved in the game still and when you’ve got that, you’ve got a real good chance, especially the way they play. They’re a hell of a team.”

The forwards who were eligible showed out, with five multi-point nights amongst that group. If my understanding of the rules are correct, Carolina should be able to ice a full lineup this evening, with the team recalling an additional two forwards from AHL-Chicago yesterday, which would bring them back to 18 skaters.

Per Walt Ruff of CarolinaHurricanes.com, goaltender Frederik Andersen was off the ice first this morning. Assuming Andersen gets the nod between the pipes, he brings a 9-1-3 career record against the Kings into tonight’s action, including a victory from the 5-4 game played back in November. All-time, Andersen carries a .932 save percentage and a 2.16 goals-against average versus the Kings.

Per Ruff, here was Carolina’s alignment at forward this morning –

With 12 forwards available once again, the line combinations for Carolina:

Niederreiter- Trocheck – Necas
Teräväinen – Kotkaniemi – Fast
Drury – Stepan – Noesen
C.J. Smith – Poturalski – Leivo

Keep in mind, these things tend to change, especially given all the moving parts.

— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) December 18, 2021

The defensemen, largely untouched, lined up as follows against Detroit on Thursday –

Slavin – DeAngelo
Skjei – Pesce
Smith – Bear

As we noted above as it pertains to the Kings, we take these things not even day-by-day, but hour-by-hour. All looking good now, but we wait and see.

Christ-ian Cringle
The Kings have naturally needed to make changes to their group of defensemen over the last few games, with the long-term injury to Alex Edler and Doughty’s addition into protocol. One such change has been the insertion of defenseman Christian Wolanin, who played his first two games with the Kings this season against Tampa Bay and Florida.

Wolanin signed a one-year extension with the Kings during the offseason and made the team out of training camp. After he was a healthy scratch on opening night, Wolanin was placed on waivers, only to be claimed by Buffalo. After just one game played with the Sabres, and around a month’s worth of practices with the Sabres, Wolanin was claimed back on waivers by the Kings earlier this month.

“We didn’t want him to be picked up and now that he’s back here, he’s getting prime minutes, he’s excited about being here,” McLellan said. “He spent enough time with us last year to understand how we play, so I think the comfort of being here is a really good thing and he’s played [six] hockey games this year, that’s an exhibition season for some players. Give him credit for going in and playing some tough minutes right now.”

Wolanin brings offensive tools and strong skating ability to the Kings backend. An offensively gifted player throughout the time in the AHL, with Belleville and Ontario, Wolanin has those traits to his game, with McLellan going as far as to say that he has power-play ability to his game. Wolanin quarterbacked the team’s second unit last night.

Speaking with Wolanin today, he gave a number of impressive answers, in his first media availability of the season. A few excerpts of that below –

On getting into consecutive games, with a larger role
That’s the most I’ve played since the World Championships, at the NHL level, in terms of minutes played, consistent reps. I think even going back to my last year in Ottawa, I’d maybe get two games in a row, but it’d be seven, eight minutes. I think, no matter who you talk to, that’s a really hard job, and there are guys in this league that do it unbelievably well, and if that’s what I have to do, that’s what I’ll do. I’m just thankful to come back here, in general, to play with guys that I’m familiar with, Royzie in the first game and Mikey last game. It’s just great to be back in this organization and I just want to continue to stack those reps on top of each other and get better every game.

On the hardest things to pick back up once you get into game action
It’s a mix between everything. Sometimes, it’s the conditioning for some guys, sometimes it’s the system. For me, it was hard going to Buffalo to try and learn a new system, just in practice for the most part. Then, coming back here, although it’s something I was familiar with and was able to pick up somewhat fast, there’s still times in the game when [a coach] comes over and says this is what you do [in this situation]. It’s not a yell, it’s nothing negative, it’s just a reminder. Those are the two things, and then it’s the little touch plays, the feel plays. When you have a guy on your back, actually trying to hit you as hard as you can. In practice, those reps are good, but nobody’s ever trying to kill you or really get that puck off you. To play for real, start to get consistent reps and feel, get my flow back, it’s a fun feeling to be honest.

On returning to the Kings organization
When it first happened, I wasn’t thrilled, just because I was loving everything about being here in LA. I loved playing for both coaches, both systems, American League and NHL, I love the guys and both systems. I have a lot of respect for Blakey, and you guys know Lucky Luc was my favorite player growing up, I just loved being in this organization. When I got picked up by Buffalo, I just wanted to be a pro, I turned my attention to Buffalo. I tried to get adjusted and learned to love Buffalo as well. After a while of not playing, I never checked out, but I hoped that things would work out and I would come back to where I was comfortable. Obviously, a lot has changed since I left and came back, but when I got word that I was going to go back on waivers, I was hopeful that LA was going to pick me up and when they did, it almost didn’t feel real until I got back and played my first game with the Reign. I started to get comfortable and just being with this group of guys, I feel at home.

Wolanin looks set to play his third game of the season this evening, tonight against the Hurricanes.

With that, Kings and Canes set for a 4 PM Pacific puck drop tonight in Raleigh. That’s the information we know right now, and we’ll update if any additional changes are necessitated.