4/28 Preview – Roster Changes Expected + Final Test, Anderson’s Return, Gabe’s Game

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (44-27-10) @ Vancouver Canucks (39-30-11)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, April 27 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Rogers Arena – Vancouver, BC
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: We’ve reached Game 82, Insiders! The Kings will conclude their regular-season schedule tonight in Vancouver before the postseason begins next week.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings are 1-1-0 in the season series against Vancouver, with each team winning on home ice. The Kings have scored just one goal between the two games, however, with Brendan Lemieux finding the back of the net in a 2-1 shootout win back in December. Defenseman Alex Edler is expected to play just his second career game against Vancouver, the franchise he played more than 900 games with before joining the Kings in the offseason.

KINGS VITALS: 60 minutes of hockey is all that separates the Kings from their return to the playoffs, set to begin early next week. The Kings enter their final regular-season contest on a five-game winning streak, extended with a 5-3 victory over Seattle yesterday evening.

With Todd McLellan indicating yesterday that he’d like his heavier minute players to avoid this back-to-back, we can all but assume that Cal Petersen will start tonight in Vancouver, snapping Jonathan Quick’s streak of seven consecutive starts. Petersen is 1-2-0 all-time against the Canucks, with a .912 save percentage and a 2.68 goals-against average.

McLellan made it clear that the Kings would shuffle the lineup over their final two games, giving players the rest they need heading into the postseason. The forward quartet of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Alex Iafallo and Adrian Kempe were held out yesterday, along with the defensive duo of Alex Edler and Olli Maatta, as well as Troy Stecher and Austin Strand. Expect the Kings to rotate many of those individuals in, with others getting a night off.

McLellan confirmed that defenseman Mikey Anderson would play the back-to-back, coming off of injury, giving the team a look at his level of play when pressed with a bit of fatigue. Anderson had not played since he suffered an upper-body injury in Boston on March 7, but he returned to action last night with a team-high 24:27 of ice time in the win. Anderson felt good in his return to action and is an important piece of the puzzle headed into the postseason. More on him below.

Embedded here is yesterday’s lineup, knowing fully that it will not be the same group playing tonight.

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Athanasiou – Lizotte – Vilardi
Grundstrom – Byfield – Kaliyev
Lemieux – Kupari – Andersson

Anderson – Roy
Bjornfot – Spence
Moverare – Durzi

Quick
Petersen

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) April 28, 2022

CANUCKS VITALS: Vancouver worked its way back into the postseason picture with six consecutive victories earlier this month, but saw those hopes dissipate after three losses immediately following.

Per Jeff Paterson of the Rink Wide Podcast, goaltender Spencer Martin is tonight’s projected starter against the Kings. Martin has just seven NHL appearances to his name, with one coming against the Kings now more than five years ago. He made 35 saves on 40 shots in a 5-0 defeat back on February 1, 2017, with that game coming as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.

Per Vancouver’s team account, here’s how the Canucks lined up last time out, versus Seattle on Tuesday –

Tonight's lineup ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/UDaIjDzOJN

— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) April 27, 2022

The Canucks are currently without several regulars, including both of their usual goaltenders in Thatcher Demko and Jaroslav Halak. Both netminders could be done for the season.

Notes –

Taking The Test
“I’d like to think that we have been in class now for 82 games to get prepared for the exam. Sometimes exams go really well and sometimes they don’t, but we’ve done the work, put in the work and prepared for the exam, so we’re going to give ourselves a chance.”

That was Todd McLellan, in advance of his team’s final practice examination. They’ve taken the SAT Prep Course, they’ve done the take-home tests and now they’re in the classroom taking a practice exam under test-like conditions.

The real test is just a few days away, and the Kings feel as if they are prepared. That doesn’t diminish the task at hand tonight, it just changes it. McLellan believes that tonight’s game is important for different reasons and it will give certain players the opportunity to impress and others the opportunity to prepare. All important, in advance of Edmonton.

“Tonight’s a big night for our team, for a lot of different reasons,” McLellan said. “Prep, moving forward, we’ll change the lineup again and there will be a number of players that come back in and others that come out. Playing back-to-back, at this time of the year, for some of our guys is not ideal and we can avoid that by getting in early enough to make those plans. A win is the goal, coming out of it healthy is important and then going home and preparing for what will be an exciting ride for us.”

Anderson Importance & Return
An important night lies ahead for defenseman Mikey Anderson.

While these two games for many of the team’s regulars presented an opportunity for them to not play back-to-back games, for Anderson, it represents an important opportunity for him to do it.

McLellan talked about this a bit in yesterday’s post-game press conference, but Anderson encountered a very similar situation to what happened with the original occurrence of his injury back in Boston during his first shift last night. An important hurdle for the young defenseman and it was good to see him get that moment out of the way early in the game.

“I think the first thing that happened for him was that he got involved physically, the exact same play or moment in which he got injured 23 games ago, it occurred on basically his first shift,” McLellan said this morning. “He dug in on that play, he committed to it and I think that was an obstacle that he needed to overcome.”

Anderson went on to play more than 24 minutes in his first game back, an important test.

McLellan added last night that the back-to-back is another good step for Anderson and it gives the staff the chance to evaluate him with some fatigue factored in. It’s also another game under his belt to shake off any rust that might still be present and another game to adapt back to the pace of play. There was naturally some of that in his first game back, but Anderson did a good job of playing within himself yesterday in Seattle.

“Is there rust there? Of course there is,” McLellan added. “The pace of play, passing, the reads, the intensity has gone up since he’s played, but for the most part, he played within his own skin, he did what he needed to do and he’ll get another opportunity tonight to knock a little bit more rust off.”

For his part, Anderson recognized the pace differences at this time of the year.

He did his best to be able to try and replicate that level of intensity from watching, and during practices, but there’s only so much you can do in those settings.

“It’s tough, obviously you can see [the pace] from upstairs and being around the team for the last two months, you can see it in practices, you can see the intensity and how it ramps up,” Anderson said. “That’s something I tried to match, even though I was skating on my own, I was trying to be ready to come back in and know what it was going to be like. The coaches mentioned it, everyone talked about it. I got to see it and it was nice to be back in the lineup and be able to experience it a little bit.”

With 60 minutes down and 60 minutes still to come, a full reintegrated Anderson is a nice piece for the Kings to have back at their disposal.

Vilardi’s Game
Lastly, Insiders, a good showing from Gabe Vilardi last night.

A goal and two assists, chances all around beyond just the points, and an impressive reintegration into the lineup.

McLellan on Vilardi’s game
He played a real solid game, a real solid game. He played like he had been out of the lineup and wanted to prove that he should have been in the lineup, so you’ve got to tip your cap to that. Some others maybe didn’t quite get there, but Gabe did.

Vilardi on making the most of his opportunity
Yeah, I haven’t played in two weeks now, it was my first game back so I’ve got to take whatever opportunity I have and show them that I can play. Like I said at the intermission, I want to play. They drafted me, I want to play and I want to help the team.

Another opportunity for Vilardi tonight in Vancouver, along with several others, as the Kings look to shape up their Game 1 lineup. Kings and Canucks to close out the regular season, tonight at 7 PM from Rogers Arena!

*Note, will follow up with a post on today’s Dustin Brown news, as well as extensive coverage over the next couple of days*