10/7 Practice – Arvidsson approaches game action + final tuneups & Tu Liga schedule

Good Afternoon, Insiders!

Training camp practices are in the books!

As Todd McLellan said last night and reinforced here this morning, the evaluation process has not ended, especially not with an exhibition contest still on the schedule for tomorrow. The next time the team takes the ice here at Toyota Sports Performance Center, however, it will be for a regular-season practice.

“I would say that the group is quite close, but will the game tomorrow change anybody’s opinion, it sure could,” McLellan said today. “From a business perspective, managing the cap, waivers and transactions that have to happen, these have to get planned out a little bit earlier than tomorrow, so there’s a plan. I know Rob and his staff have a plan in place and it can adjust after tomorrow, based on performance, injury, need, waiver wire from another team, whatever it might be, but there is a plan in place.”

The Kings had 15 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders on the ice this morning following a slew of roster transactions earlier in the day. The players who did practice were not necessarily fastened onto firm lines, meaning there didn’t appear to be a ton of line-based drills, but here’s how they shook out by jersey color –

Gray: Fiala, Kopitar, Kempe, Arvidsson, Danault, Moore, Anderson-Dolan, Kupari
White: Iafallo, Byfield, Kaliyev, Lemieux, Lizotte, Grundstrom, Vilardi
Defensemen: Doughty, Anderson, Roy, Walker, Edler, Durzi, Clarke, Moverare
Goaltenders: Petersen, Quick, Copley

As detailed earlier today, the Kings assigned forwards Lias Andersson and T.J. Tynan, along with defensemen Tobias Bjornfot and Jordan Spence to AHL-Ontario, with all four players skating with the Reign today. Additionally, forward Jacob Doty was released from his PTO in training camp and was with Ontario as well. Full breakdown HERE.

Starting with a few housekeeping notes, Quinton Byfield is good to go – per both himself and Todd McLellan – and has now skated with the group over the last two days. Will share a bit more from QB in tomorrow’s game preview, with all signs pointing to a return to the lineup for his third game of the exhibition season.

Regarding Sean Durzi and Viktor Arvidsson, Durzi appears to be in the right place coming off of his preseason debut last night, while Arvidsson is taking steps towards a potential return to game action. A week or so ago, McLellan left the door open for a potential preseason appearance for Arvidsson, with tomorrow’s game against Anaheim the one that he mentioned as a possibility. With a strong week of progress, and just that game left on the calendar, it’s still a possibility, per McLellan, pending a good evaluation after today’s practice.

“We’ll have to evaluate him, like we do after every skate, but I think there’s a good chance he’ll be in tomorrow,” McLellan said. “If he’s fresh, capable and feeling good, we’re going to play him.”

Arvidsson himself knows a return to game action is coming, though like McLellan it wasn’t an outright yes as it pertains to tomorrow. With the severity of his injury, he understands that the decision isn’t necessarily his alone, but something that comes in conjunction with the training staff and medical team the Kings have in place.

“Yeah, we’ll see, I’m taking it day-by-day and just trying to work on my game, tying to be comfortable out there,” he said. “It’s coming and we’ll see when I get the call. I’ll talk with the medical staff and see where we’re at.”

Durzi mentioned the concept of defensive zone reads as being the hardest thing for him to get back right away. Making the right reads in his own zone and making them at NHL game speed were, in his mind, the most difficult thing to replicate in practices and therefore something that is difficult to just have snap back in games.

Arvidsson is an experienced player, who has returned to a lineup before, even if not coming off of an injury of this extent. He feels good nonetheless, as he’s progressed from a different start to his season and is focusing on his timing as he approaches game action.

“I think it’s timing, just being in the right positions,” he said. “That takes a little bit of time to come back, but I’ve played for awhile now, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

No morning skate tomorrow with the early puck drop, so we’ll see where the final verdict lands with Arvidsson closer to game time.

Final Tuneups
“We won’t get to everything, but we’re hoping that the stuff we don’t get to instinctively comes to them,” McLellan said. “They’re going to need some reminders, but we, like most teams, are going to be a work in progress for a good month to nail down exactly how you want to play. Special teams are still a big part of wins and losses. Game management is really hard to practice and that’s a big part of wins and losses, so they have to manage themselves in those situations.”

That was Todd McLellan as he discussed the concept of final focus points entering into the final couple of team practices before the regular season begins. Last season, the Kings didn’t open until the third day of regular-season play, with two extra days of practice under their belts. This year, that first game comes two days earlier, with the Kings a part of the NHL’s (North American) opening night on ESPN.

That’s not to suggest that two days is the make or break difference between hitting every single focal point and not doing so.

As McLellan noted above, he expects teams around the NHL to be a “work in progress” for the first month or so of the season as structure, identities and the like are sorted out. We didn’t really see the fullest edition of the 2021-22 LA Kings until the new year, with the best we saw of the team coming in that stretch from January through March when team health met structural execution.

“We’re not trying to shed a lot of habits, we’re actually trying to bring them back, which is kind of unique, that’s what we’re waiting for,” McLellan said. “I think we did some things better down the stretch last year than we’re doing right now and we’re trying to retrieve those habits and those situational things that we did better, but I’m sure most teams are probably saying that. A lot goes away in the summer and you got to re-live it again and polish it up.”

The timeline this season is certainly more accelerated, with increased expectations surrounding the group. The Kings will want to look more like themselves well before the calendar flips to read 2023.

Kings, Tu-Liga Announce Spanish Radio Schedule
Lastly, earlier today, the Kings announced the club’s schedule for games to be broadcast on KWKW 1330 AM Tu Liga Radio in Spanish. The schedule will be comprised of 12 games, including both games on a season-opening two-game homestand, beginning on Tuesday versus Vegas.

This year’s schedule is as follows:

October 11 vs. Vegas @ 7:00 PM
October 13 vs. Seattle @ 7:30 PM
November 8 vs. Minnesota @ 7:30 PM
November 10 vs. Chicago @ 7:30 PM
December 20 vs. Anaheim @ 7:30 PM
January 3 vs. Dallas @ 7:30 PM
January 11 vs. San Jose @ 7:00 PM
January 19 vs. Dallas @ 7:30 PM
March 6 vs. Washington @ 7:30 PM
March 16 vs. Columbus @ 7:30 PM
March 20 vs. Calgary @ 7:30 PM
April 10 vs. Vancouver @ 7:30 PM

Eligible Kings games can be streamed HERE or on terrestrial radio.

As has been the case since the Kings debuted on Tu Liga, Francisco X. Rivera will serve as the Play-by-Play Announcer for Kings games in Spanish on the radio, with Nano Cortés as the Analyst. The pair have been calling select home games since 2018.

A full Kings broadcast schedule is available HERE.

With the 1:00 PM game tomorrow, which means no morning skate, I saved a couple of conversations until tomorrow’s game preview. Wil have an update on Quinton Byfield regarding his readiness coming off of an illness, as well as a couple of notes on a focus on netfront battles and the importance of versatility when evaluating players for final roster spots. As noted earlier, we’ll have an Ontario Reign training camp check in coming this evening, which will serve as a de-facto preview for tomorrow’s preseason opener. More to follow.

I’ll poke around the comments this afternoon if anyone has any questions. If not, talk tomorrow!