Practice 2/16 – Focus on the PK performance, Byfield update, goaltending rotation moving forward

The Kings returned to the ice this morning, following a tightly-contested defeat against Edmonton last night at home.

Last night’s game was certainly a competitive one, but a game that the Kings fell one mistake short of the end result they wanted. A one-goal contest when you take out the empty netters, it’s a game of inches. The Oilers got their third goal by a matter of inches. Phillip Danault and Drew Doughty were denied at the other end by a matter of inches. A game of inches, Insiders.

“A lot of the games will come down to moments,” McLellan said. “We play 60 minutes, but there will be six moments in the game and they probably out-momented us yesterday by one. If we can have one of them back and fix those little segments, the rest is a wash, it goes back and forth, but can we be prepared for those moments and take care of them. They were one better than we were last night, it’s such a fine line.”

No apparent changes during this morning’s practice, as the Kings hit the ice at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo. The Kings lined up as they did in last night’s game, though Carl Grundstrom appeared to be more prominent on the third line in rushes today than Andreas Athanasiou did.

Joining the team for the full practice was forward Lias Andersson, who is currently working his way back into action coming off of an injury he sustained in practice more than a month prior. Andersson joined morning skate yesterday, midway through, and has been skating on his own now for some time. A good sign to see him return to the full group here this morning.

Here’s how things shook out during today’s skate –

Iafallo – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Grundstrom – Athanasiou – Byfield – Brown
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Andersson (Red)

Anderson – Doughty
Maatta – Roy
Bjornfot – Durzi
Moverare

Quick / Petersen

A Time To Penalty Kill
*Inserts opening line about it being no secret that the LA Kings are working on improving special teams*

Beating a dead horse at this point, but we certainly saw improvements on one half of that equation last night. Entering Crypto.com Arena was the NHL’s second-best power play, which exited the game without a goal scored on the man advantage.

The Kings put extensive focus and practice into both special teams units over the course of the last six days. The power play did not necessarily reap those rewards in-game one back, though the penalty kill saw some strides of improvement. Speaking with Todd McLellan today, he talked about the differences between the power play and the penalty kill. The word of the day was “precise” and how it applies to both the PP and the PK in different ways.

“I think the penalty kill doesn’t have to be precise, you just need to get a stick on the puck,” McLellan said. “If you’re just getting a stick on the puck on the power play, you’re chasing it all over the place, you need to be precise. It would be interesting, if they took the ability to ice the puck away from the penalty kill, now you’re talking about being a lot more precise, but you can just swing at a puck and knock it down and away it goes. You can’t do that on the power play. If you take that erratic play of a penalty kill and put it into the small area against the power play, that’s hard sometimes. The penalty kill can be a lot more gamble, the power play has to be a lot more precise. One guy can kind of get the penalty kill done in certain situations, one guy can’t get the power play done, it’s the collaboration of all five. One guy can block a shot and get a clear and that’s it.”

Speaking with McLellan and defenseman Matt Roy today on the improvements on the penalty kill, a lot of the qualities that both men valued when it comes to an effective penalty killer aren’t necessarily physical attributes, but rather ones that you might consider to be character-based, or in

McLellan – I think that skill on the penalty kill is anticipation, anticipating where plays are going to go before it happens. You have to have a lot of courage to be a penalty killer, you have to be in shooting lanes, things like that where on the other side of it, you’re the creators on the power play. It takes more skill and more vision to do that.

Roy – Generally, sacrifice, blocking shots, communication, talking to your teammates out there. It’s just details, little details, stick positioning, little things like that can go a long way.

When asked this morning, McLellan confirmed that certain elements to the PK that were worked on over the last week or so showed up in yesterday evening’s game. Speaking with Roy, he talked about playing with more aggression on the penalty kill, focusing on the simple things – blocking shots and getting clears.

“We looked at [Edmonton]’s power play, with their top guys being very effective,” he said. “We just talked about being more aggressive and doing what we can to shut those guys down. Moving forward, we’re just going to try and be aggressive, block our shots when we can and get our clears when we can.”

While it sounds easy, far too often have the Kings had opportunities to get clears on the penalty kill with the puck not making it 200 feet down the ice, or sometimes even out of the defensive zone. Getting more outputs like yesterday against the Oilers would be a solid step forward to a strong penalty-killing unit.

Byfield’s Buildup
A lot has been made of Quinton Byfield’s first eight games with the LA Kings.

Such is life as a second-overall draft pick. The spotlight is always shining brightly on Byfield, his play, his situational usage and his production. For good or for bad, the expectations and the eyeballs are always bigger and more aplenty.

Byfield’s time has had its share of highs and lows, ebbs and flows. He’s had nights where he’s taken control of the game and he’s had other nights where he’s blended in a bit more. McLellan spoke on his young center earlier today.

“I think there’s ups and downs with him, it’s not easy, it hasn’t been smooth,” McLellan said. “I think he’s at the point now where he needs to be poked a little bit and he’s getting that. He’s been a pro now for a year and how he started in the American League is how he’s started here, he’s learned a lot of lessons. I talk a lot about permission, it’s time for him to start giving himself permission and let’s go.”

Nothing alarming there really, but a head coach who understands the sky-high potential that Byfield has and can one day bring to the Kings. Looking at Byfield on a 1-5 scale, with one being as raw as possible and five being a finished product, McLellan estimated his current positioning as a “1 or a 2”. That says less about where he is right now and more about where the organization hopes he will one day be.

He’s currently centering a bottom-six line at the NHL level, without looking out of place in doing so. While his role has fluctuated a bit, and his minutes haven’t been consistent, that same thing could be said for most young players who are introduced to the National Hockey League. As he gets more and more comfortable, and more and more confident, it will continue to click for Byfield with the Kings.

“We’re asking him to do a lot right now, but he’s capable of it,” McLellan said. “I think that he’s going to learn the league, he’s going to learn what his strengths and weaknesses are here, he’s going to learn to play against certain players, his situational play is going to improve. There’s the special teams stuff that will come eventually, there’s the grind of the schedule, there’s the physical development. A lot of these guys get big and strong in the summer when they’re kids and by the end of the winter, they look like skeletons, because it’s hard to keep it on. The mental stress of the NHL grind, it’s a lot for him to take in.”

Going To The Goalies
McLellan was also asked about the goaltending rotation down the stretch, looking at the balance between Cal Petersen and Jonathan Quick over the final 34 games.

The two netminders have more or less shared the net throughout the early stages of the season. Petersen missed some time due to COVID Protocol, with Quick seizing the net in that time due to performance. Outside of that month-long stretch, however, it’s been close to a 50-50 split, with the slight leg up to Quick.

Last night saw Petersen in goal, with not much he could have done differently on the goals allowed. Quick didn’t put a bad foot forward on the team’s most recent road trip, either and you’d imagine that the two will split the games this weekend in Vegas and Arizona, the first of seven back-to-back sets to come during the remainder of the season.

After this weekend’s game, the Kings have more than one day between games just five times, meaning that both goaltenders will be important in the team’s push for the postseason, though performance will likely dictate which of the two claims more of the net. In theory, a good problem for the Kings to have if both are playing at their best.

“It will sort itself out,” he said. “I don’t think you’re going to see ping-pong balls going back and forth, although the schedule is going to dictate, fatigue wise and travel wise, at least for our team, that I don’t think you’re going to see a 27 and 7 swing, we just won’t do that, we can’t do that. There may be some imbalances moving forward, who is playing well against certain teams.”

The Kings are back in action tomorrow for practice in El Segundo, before the team flies to Nevada later in the afternoon. More to follow tomorrow, with a longer-lens focus on their team’s standing and what’s to come.