2/28 Preview – No Lineup Changes + Top 2-Way Centers, Grundstrom’s Impact, Depth, PP Progress

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (29-17-7) vs. Boston Bruins (31-17-4)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Monday, February 28 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings cap off a short, two-game homestand this evening as they host the Boston Bruins, the first of two games between the clubs over the next seven days.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings and Bruins have not met since December 2019, with the Kings winning the only matchup during the 2019-20 campaign. Anze Kopitar scored the game-winning goal in overtime, while Adrian Kempe, Blake Lizotte and Matt Roy also found the back of the net in the victory. The teams haven’t played in Los Angeles since the 2018-19 season, a 4-2 Boston victory in February 2019.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings return to action following yesterday’s day off, which came after a pair of victories over the weekend.

With that in mind, today’s morning skate was a full-team skate, getting everyone back on the ice following the off day.

The Kings split their goaltenders over the weekend, with Jonathan Quick winning in Anaheim and Cal Petersen defeating the Islanders at home. Acting Head Coach Trent Yawney confirmed following morning skate that the Kings will turn back to Quick this evening at home. The veteran goaltender is 11-5-1 versus the Bruins throughout his NHL career, with a .928 save percentage and a 2.12 goals-against average. Quick enters the game on 350 career victories, a milestone he reached last time out.

Here’s how the Kings lined up this morning, with Yawney indicating that there will be no changes expected –

Iafallo – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danaut – Arvidsson
Grundstrom – Byfield – Brown
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Athanasiou – Andersson

Anderson – Doughty
Maatta – Roy
Bjornfot – Durzi
Moverare

Quick
Petersen

Stemming off of consecutive victories, Yawney confirmed that the Kings do not plan to make any lineup changes this evening. If one is necessitated, forward Andreas Athanasiou is an option, as is defenseman Jacob Moverare. Lias Andersson continues to skate with the group but has not yet been activated off of injured reserve.

BRUINS VITALS: The Bruins are in the midst of a six-game roadtrip, winning their first two games over Seattle and San Jose. Overall, Boston is on a four-game winning streak and is playing a stretch of games with 10 of 11 away from home.

Over their last 13 games, the duo of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman have split the action, with Ullmark playing seven games and Swayman playing six. The latter has started three of the last four and five of the last seven, posting a 4-0-1 record in that span, and is also tonight’s expected starter. Swayman has yet to play an NHL game against the Kings.

For reference, here’s how Boston lined up on Saturday in San Jose, which is tonight’s projected lineup as well, per their television partner NESN –

The Bruins are without defensemen Urho Vaakanainen and Jakub Zboril, who are on injured reserve at this time. Forward Curtis Lazar has an upper-body injury and is day-to-day at this time.

Notes –

Three Centers, Two Ways
Tonight’s matchup features three of the NHL’s top two-way centermen in Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault for the Kings and Patrice Bergeron for the Bruins.

Both Bergeron and Kopitar are multi-time Selke Trophy winners, “awarded annually to the National Hockey League forward who demonstrates the most skill in the defensive component of the game.”

In recent voting circles, the award has come to represent the league’s best two-way forward, a conversation Danault has worked himself into the middle of, placing inside the Top 7 in voting in each of the last three seasons. Combine that with an offensive breakout here this season and the stage is set to display three of the best 200-foot centers in the NHL on the same ice.

“I think that we’re going to go head-to-head, with their best and your best, and arguably they’re our two best lines,” Trent Yawney said. “Let them settle the score.”

The notion I had going into today was that both of these teams are ones that want to see their best players matchup against the other team’s best players. Yawney called that “no secret”, and his quote above speaks to that point.

It’s two schools of thought – Do you want that matchup, to potentially take advantage of the abilities of your top-end players to play at both ends, shut down and create, or do you want to separate your best players from the other team’s best, creating potential mismatches against a bottom six. We’ve seen both this season and the Kings have had success in both scenarios.

Tonight feels like an example of the former, with both teams possessing those elite, two-way guys.

“Yeah, I think so too, I think it could be that kind of game tonight, but they have a lot of depth,” Danault said this morning. “Whoever we play against could be a good challenge all night.

The million-dollar question is then, who matches up against Bergeron and who plays more against a second line that features the dynamic and offensively gifted David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall?

Danault wasn’t sharing this morning, but knows that he and his teammates will need to be ready for whatever matchups come their way, facing off versus a tough foe in Boston.

“I’m not sure who’s going to matchup [against who] but we’ll be ready,” he said. “On an icing, anybody can be out there, so we need to be ready, but it’s definitely a good team with two-way guys on the other side.”

Grundstrom’s Game & Forward Depth
The Kings have gotten goals from their third line in consecutive games since inserting Carl Grundstrom back into the lineup. Grundstrom has skated on the left with Quinton Byfield at center and Dustin Brown on the right.

That line, whether with Grundstrom or Andreas Athanasiou in that spot, has always had the talent, or the pieces, to be successful, but had a mixed bag of actual output. In games like those away versus the Islanders or at home versus the Golden Knights, we saw a trio of players buzzing, creating offense and impacting games. Other nights saw that line fall short and fail to make that consistent impact.

With Grundstrom, Byfield and Brown together – admittedly a very small sample size – the trio has controlled more than 63 percent of shot attempts, more than 67 percent of scoring chances and more than 78 percent of high-danger chances. Their minutes together have been extremely minimal – just over 40 together this season – but they’ve offered some consistency as a unit.

Yawney pointed to Grundstrom’s physicality and straight-line style as helping Byfield a bit and also complementing Brown, while at the same time taking nothing away from the highly-skilled Andreas Athanasiou, who has been the odd-man out over the last two games.

“I think [Grundstrom’s] physicality, it’s important all the time, but the fact that he plays in straight lines, it’s made Q play a more direct game and it also complements Brownie a little bit more,” Yawney said. “That’s nothing against AA, he just plays a different game and there’s nothing wrong with that. That line was struggling a little bit and now they seem to have some traction. Hopefully they do it again.”

With the production of the third line this past weekend, the Kings found depth on four lines, a key to a crowded stretch of games. When you’re playing three games in four nights, as the Kings are, or five games in eight nights, as the Kings have beginning today, that depth is important.

Speaking with Phillip Danault, getting that depth scoring, and overall contributions, from throughout the lineup has been a great thing for the Kings. With the third line being productive over these last couple of games, Danault has seen that top-to-bottom depth throughout the Kings as of late. Important to have, heading into a very congested stretch.

“I think it shows the strength of our team, a lot of depth, when everyone can contribute offensively and be solid defensively,” he said. “Everyone’s buying in, a defenseman scored last game too, I think it’s great to see that, everyone is going in the right direction. Everyone is dedicated, everyone comes in to work, that’s how you win.”

#PowerPlayProcess
The Kings went 0-for-5 on the man advantage versus the Islanders on Saturday. It didn’t matter on that night – a commanding 5-on-5 effort made sure of that – but the team has been making progress on the power play as of late by adding more motion to their approach.

Trent Yawney analyzed that unit’s performance from last game, with a look inside what is being talked about in advance of tonight’s game against the Bruins.

“We talked about it this morning, we like the motion, Todd had talked about our power play getting more motion, it was getting too static. I thought we got the motion part down, but we had five power plays and only had four shots, we really didn’t shoot the puck enough when we had the opportunity. We talked about being a little bit more direct on that power play, while still doing what we’re doing because that opens up space, but take the shot when it’s there, versus trying to make a prettier play.”

It’ll continue to take time, Insiders, but special teams remains right at the top of the list, day-in and day-out, for the Kings to work on.

Kings and Bruins, tonight at 7:30 before we head on the road, again, tomorrow!

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