Day 3 Notes & Quotes – Scrimmage Recap + Danault Skates, 19/55/34 Line & Walker’s Return

Three days down, Insiders!

Today’s practice followed suit with what we’ve seen here over the past few days, consisting of Groups A and B holding practices that were sandwiched around a scrimmage. Today saw the same structure as the first day of camp on Thursday, with Group A getting things underway.

Today’s scrimmage saw the teams combine for just one goal in the first half, after the teams finished in a 6-6 tie yesterday morning. Cal Petersen had a few nice saves, including a breakaway stop on Brendan Lemieux and Jonathan Quick denied Samuel Fagemo with a nice left-pad save. The only goal of the first half came from Kevin Fiala, who made a silky move to get the puck onto his backhand, finishing top glove from the slot.

Gabe Vilardi opened the scoring in the second half with a really nice individual effort. Vilardi intercepted a pass high in the offensive zone, walked down the left wing and snapped a shot inside the far post to tie the game at one. Group A got the go-ahead goal off of an unfortunate bounce off of Alex Edler and in, before defenseman Mikey Anderson snapped home a breakaway goal, off a nice feed from forward Martin Chromiak.

Of note, beyond the scrimmage –

Phillip Danault is skating today with Group C and should rejoin the main group tomorrow, per Todd McLellan, assuming all goes well.

Won’t play in SJ tomorrow, but that’s not surprising, injury or no.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) September 24, 2022

Looking ahead to tomorrow, 20 of the 63 players in camp will get their first taste of an exhibition game this season, as the Kings travel to San Jose for a preseason tilt with the Sharks. We could see an entirely different group play in the game on Monday than we see play tomorrow, with a huge roster, all with different needs and expectations from preseason play. “Games of opportunity”, per Todd McLellan. More to come on that with tomorrow’s game preview.

A couple of extended sections below, with a look at Sean Walker’s process of coming back from a torn ACL and MCL early last season, as well as highlighting the early play of the third line.

Walks The Line
For fans who perhaps just started following the LA Kings last season, they might not even be familiar with Sean Walker. If you are one of those new fans, you might not know the LA Kings with Walker in the lineup, after he missed the bulk of last season with a severe lower-body injury, costing him all but the first six games of the campaign.

Now back in camp, Walker is hoping to pick up where he left off, but finds himself in the middle of a different landscape than the one he left. When Walker went down, the Kings were quite defined on the right side of the blueline with he, Drew Doughty and Matt Roy occupying three spots, relatively comfortably. Now, the emergence of Sean Durzi and Jordan Spence, as well as the up-and-coming Brandt Clarke, has pushed more of that need to the left side, which is where Walker has opened camp, skating with Roy on a potential second pairing.

With all of that in mind, early expectations for Walker are perhaps unfair, but nonetheless they will be placed, with an understanding it could take a bit of time to fully see the Sean Walker we remember from October 2021.

“It’s been so long and in fairness to him, we have to remember what he was and what we believe he can get back tom but it’s going to take some time,” McLellan said. “He was a guy who played the game with his legs. He had good legs, he got to pucks quick, he could be quick and join the rush, be quick and defend. He had a bit of a pitbull attitude, with his size and the way he went after the game. He had some offensive instincts, he created a lot of chances by using his legs, all of that stuff we believe will come back, but to ask for day two or day three into training camp is going to be a tough thing.”

From Walker’s perspective, his process back has taken him nearly 12 months, though not necessarily due to his own process, but rather the reality of his timeline. Suffering the injury in October put him at a place in the recovery process where he was not able to re-join the team during the season and participate in the playoff run, though he was also just about done with his rehabilitation by the time his usual summer training kicked in.

That led to what was, generally, a consistent summer from a training perspective.

“For the most part, it was generally the same, I was kind of at the point where it was basically just getting strength back in the quad and everything like that,” he said. “For the most part, it was the same summer, just modified exercises to focus kind of on that area. Generally the same, but with a focus.”

Walker also touched on the process of getting back into things and being back in a game setting for the first time since October.

It was just a scrimmage, sure, and his next test will come during the exhibition season, but there are things you can’t replicate during summer workouts and that came for Walker during formal camp sessions.

“It’s definitely a different intensity than it is in the summer skates, so you just want to adapt to that. It’s been a while since I’ve been in those situations, so just getting the timing down, the positioning right again. Adapt fast, feel good and I’ve been out there with a lot of guys who have helped me, so it’s been good.”

The outlook of an injury like that is perhaps just as important as the physical recovery is, and from that side of things, Walker seems to have conquired the feat. He credited the many medical personnel who assisted him throughout the process, as well as his family for being there for support.

He’s now back in the fold and determined to not only be back to his best, but even better, moving forward.

“It’s another stepping stone in my career,” Walker summized. “It’s been trying at times but I know I can come back from this and hopefully be better than before. I want to comeout the other side, contribute to the team and hopefully we’ll go deep in the playoffs this year.”

Three Days In For Line Three
It’s certainly early in camp and with 17 days still between today and the first game of the regular season, we don’t need to dive too deeply into line combinations. However, when something looks good a couple of days in a row, it’s worth a bit of conversation, so that’s where we’re at regarding a potential third line, consisting of Alex Iafallo, Quinton Byfield and Arthur Kaliyev.

That trio has been one of a few that has been held together on each of the first three days of training camp and from a lot of angles, it makes sense. When fully healthy, the top two lines are pretty solidified, with new acquisition Kevin Fiala joining Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe on the top unit, and the established trio of Trevor Moore, Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson playing behind them. That leaves Iafallo, now an established player who has flipped between the top two lines in most of his career, and two emerging talents in Byfield and Kaliyev, both of whom are in search of that next step forward. For now, McLellen sees value in the three of them together, as has been the case through 72 hours of training camp.

“Arty and Q have played together in the past and now Al is there and probably when you write our lines, you’re going to throw them down as the third line,” Todd McLellan said. “Normally, Al has played in the top two, so you think it may be a demotion, but I think it’s a promotion for him. It’s us rewarding him with more responsibility with two young players. He checks well, he’s defensively sound, he’s a puck retriever and he comes up with things that are going to help those two. I believe that the three of them are excited about playing with each other right now, I can hear them talking and discussing things. It’s a positive thing for us to this point, let’s hope it continues to be.”

That conversation that McLellan detailed is something Iafallo focused on as well.

Iafallo is the clear veteran on a line that consists of two players who are 20 and 21 alongside him. As a player who has worn a letter in the past, and as a part of the extended leadership group with the Kings, Iafallo noted that his new line has made it a point to talk on the bench and disuss things like aggression on the forecheck, holding onto the puck and creating multiple scoring chances throughout shifts.

“Yeah, we kind of talked about it after the shifts, just trying to stay aggressive and try to hold on the puck,” he said. “I know it’s only two days but as a line, we hadn’t played together so we’re just trying to keep that going and it’s worked well for us in the first two intra-squad scrimmages, so we’ve just got to keep doing that.”

The results in early scrimmages have been impressive, with several long, extended shifts taking place for that line.

Iafallo played for a stretch with Byfield last season on a line with he and Andreas Athanasiou or Carl Grundstrom as the third player. He’s seen growth in both his game and in Kaliyev’s, and that growth is something that could be very important for the Kings this season.

“They’re getting more experience and you can see that coming out in their games,” he said of his linemates. “They’re talking more, they’re communicating more and it’s been a good first few days for them. A lot of support, they’re fast and they want to shoot the puck, it’s been good for our line.”

For Byfield’s part, he’s sharing in that excitement, noting his previous chemistry with Kaliyev at the AHL level and the same things that McLellan praised Iafallo about. An exciting start for three players who will be important for the Kings this season.

“I played with Arty a lot in the American League with the Ontario Reign in my first year and I think we have a lot of chemistry,” he said. “AI, he’s good everywhere, he’s good offensively, defensively and he works hard. I think as a line we got some chemistry going. I think it’d be a lot a lot of fun and exciting to play with those two.”

Starting tomorrow, the schedule changes, as we begin preseason play. The Kings are set to play an afternoon game in San Jose tomorrow, followed by an evening tilt in Vegas on Monday night. Full coverage of both games to follow here on LAKI!