Preview 3/13 – No Morning Skate + Roster Moves, Building Confidence, 35 Skaters, FLA Flashback

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (32-20-8) vs. Florida Panthers (40-13-5)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Sunday, March 13 @ 7:00 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: It’s a quick turnaround for the LA Kings, as they host the Florida Panthers this evening to conclude a back-to-back set of games on the weekend.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings took the first meeting of the season between the teams, a 4-1 victory in Florida over a COVID-riddled Panthers squad. Forwards Anze Kopitar and Arthur Kaliyev found the scoresheet in that game, as did defenseman Olli Maatta, as 10 different Kings found the scoresheet in total. Overall, the Kings have won eight of the last ten games the two teams have played in Los Angeles.

KINGS VITALS: Coming off of the game yesterday in San Jose, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of tonight’s game.

Goaltender Cal Petersen had the start yesterday, which projects Jonathan Quick as the likely starter this evening against Florida. Assuming he gets the nod, Quick is in line for his 700th career NHL appearance. Quick made a season-high 40 saves when these teams met back in December and enters tonight’s action with all-time record of 10-4-0 versus Florida, along with a .923 save percentage and a 2.30 goals-against average.

Considering the current injury situation facing the Kings, it would be a bold move to predict a lineup for this evening with any sort of confidence. Over the last five games, the Kings have seen seven players leave a game with an injury and now have six players on injured reserve. For a full recap of this morning’s roster moves, click here.

For the Spark Notes version, the Kings recalled the trio of Martin Frk, Gabe Vilardi and Austin Strand from the AHL’s Ontario Reign. They also assigned forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan to the Reign and placed Dustin Brown and Drew Doughty on injured reserve.

With that in mind, here’s what the Kings roster looks like at this time –

Forwards: Andersson, Byfield, Danault, Frk, Grundstrom, Iafallo, Kaliyev, Kempe, Kopitar, Kupari, Lizotte, Moore, Vilardi
Defensemen: Bjornfot, Durzi, Maatta, Moverare, Roy, Spence, Strand, Wolanin
Goaltenders: Petersen, Quick

Of that group, just Roy has an injury designation (lower-body), with no update available at this time for his potential status for tonight’s game.

PANTHERS VITALS: The Panthers are one of the NHL’s best teams this season, entering tonight’s action as one of three teams with 40+ victories, possessing both the most goals scored this season, as well as the league’s best goal differential.

Goaltender Spencer Knight is expected to get the nod for the visitors this evening, after he was the first off at this morning’s skate. In his NHL career, Knight has yet to face the Kings, with tandem-mate Sergei Bobrovsky in net when these two teams played back in December. On the season, Knight is 10-6-2 with a .902 save percentage and a 3.10 goals-against average.

Per Jameson Olive of FloridaPanthers.com, here’s how the Panthers lined up last time out versus Philadelphia –

#FlaPanthers during rushes:

Verhaeghe – Barkov – Mamin
Huberdeau – Bennett – Duclair
Marchment – Luostarinen – Reinhart
Vatrano – Acciari – Hornqvist

Weegar – Ekblad
Forsling – Gudas
Lindbohm – Montour

Bobrovsky
Johansson

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) March 10, 2022

As of this writing, the Panthers have forwards Joe Thornton and Ryan Lomberg on injured reserve, with forward Anton Lundell also injured and not on the trip. Defenseman Markus Nutivaara is on LTIR, per CapFriendly.

Banding Together
There is no magic elixir walking through the doors tonight.

The Kings, for this game here against Florida, have who they have and will need to find a way to make who and what they have work. Speaking with Todd McLellan after yesterday’s loss in San Jose, that’s where they’re at right now. The team had a decision to make this morning when they came into the rink, and past experience with this group suggests they made the right one. Now, despite the mass exodus of players to the injured list, the Kings have an opportunity tonight to right the ship, with several younger players needing to step into larger roles and veteran players needing to up their game to a higher level to compensate for those unavailable.

There’s no one on the roster at this time who doesn’t belong in the NHL and in the right roles, everyone is an effective player. We’ve spoken with McLellan quite a bit this season about the “batting order” and having players slotted as they should be. That becomes the issue right now, when you potentially have three top-four defensemen out, as well as a leading point producer in Arvidsson and several regulars in total. It’s that part of many reasons that complicate the situation.

Speaking with McLellan after last night’s game, he talked about the need to trust and be confident in the players who are here. Understanding that younger players can do their job and play in this league. The sooner the Kings can establish that, the sooner they can try to get back going in the right direction. It won’t be easy by any means, but as McLellan put it, the Kings have some points in the bank to hopefully keep the team afloat during these trying times.

“We have to understand that we have to be confident in each other,” McLellan said. “Yeah, we lost some players, but when we do things right on the ice, confidence will grow……in the meantime, our top players need to play at a really high level and let that confidence grow. The longer we let that confidence grow, the longer it takes for that to happen, the tougher the task will be for us. It will be a critical point in the season, but we have played well and we banked some points in case something like this would happen. Let’s try and improve what we have.”

Players will need to step up and players may need to fill roles they’re not quite ready for at this stage in their careers. That’s a part of the process the Kings have in front of them right now with so many regulars unavailable. On the other hand, the Kings top-end players need to play at that high level they are capable of, to help pick up the slack. We’ll see how that begins this evening against Florida.

Roster Shakedown
The Kings have, as of today, used 35 skaters in game action this season. That number isn’t surprising, and it didn’t change yesterday, with Jordan Spence on Thursday the most recent player to make his NHL debut. That number is something though – Only one team in the league, Montreal, has used more skaters so far this season.

What could be interesting, though, depending on how tonight’s roster looks is that 28 of those 35 players could potentially have played over the last…..10 days! 23 players have dressed for the Kings over the previous nine, with five more – Frk, Vilardi, Strand, Wolanin and Kupari – on the roster and potentially in the lineup tonight against the Panthers. While it’s not a guarantee that all will play, or even likely that all five play, it’s pretty wild to think about.

On the blueline, the Kings are potentially looking at their top five defensemen from opening night, depending on the status of Matt Roy. Up front, it’s two of the three members of the opening-night first line, and three forwards in total.

The Kings salary cap situation isn’t a problem, but the team currently has nearly the same amount of salary injured as they do healthy. Very few teams can endure a stretch of injuries like this all at the same time and the Kings will do their best to be one of them. For those in the “play the kids” camp, you have your wish.

That doesn’t change the goal, though. The Kings are in playoff spot as of this writing, by both points and points percentage. Regardless of tonight’s result, the Kings will wake up in a playoff spot tomorrow morning. It’s about getting points when they can right now, getting through this tough spell and pushing forward.

Lastly, how about a bit of optimism?

The last time Florida visited Los Angeles?

Gabriel Vilardi, NHL Debut, goal and an assist. Martin Frk, goal. Anze Kopitar had two assists. Trevor Moore scored. All still here.

Kings and Panthers, tonight at 7 PM from Crypto.com Arena. Head Coach Todd McLellan is expected to address the media prior to the game, so this will be updated with any additional information if it arises from the press conference.