10/20 Preview – Starting How It Ended + Growth & Mentality, Third Line Makeup, Byfield On Trust

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (3-2-0) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (2-0-1)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, October 20 @ 4:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: PPG Paints Arena – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings have reached the second to last destination on their first road trip of the season, as they square off with the Penguins this evening in Pittsburgh.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings won both meetings against the Penguins last season, including a 4-3 victory here in Pennsylvania. Forward Anze Kopitar led the way with five points (2-3-5) from the two games played, while forward Trevor Moore had four points (2-2-4), including a pair of goals here in Pittsburgh.

KINGS VITALS: Following an off day yesterday, the Kings hit the ice for a full-team morning skate earlier today at PPG Paints Arena.

Goaltender Cal Petersen was the first netminder off this morning in Pittsburgh, signaling that he is in line to make his second consecutive start tonight. All-time versus the Penguins, Petersen is 2-0-0, with a .935 save percentage and a 2.01 goals-against average.

With regards to the skaters, here’s how the team set up during line rushes –

Kempe – Kopitar – Fiala
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Kaliyev – Byfield – Vilardi
Lemieux – Lizotte – Grundstrom

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Clarke – Walker

Quick
Petersen

Defenseman Alex Edler rejoined the Kings during morning skate today, but won’t play tonight as he hasn’t skated since the injury in Detroit, per Todd McLellan. Edler will likely re-join the lineup on Saturday in Washington. Defenseman Jacob Moverare and forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan are also options, should the Kings choose to make any changes.

PENGUINS VITALS: Pittsburgh has been off since Monday, when they dropped their first point of the season in a 3-2 overtime loss against Montreal.

Goaltender Casey DeSmith was the lone netminder on the ice for the Pittsburgh optional skate this morning, so we’ll assume that Tristan Jarry will get the nod for the Penguins this evening. Jarry is 1-3-0 all-time versus the Kings, with a .891 save percentage and a 3.94 goals-against average.

Per the Pittsburgh team account, here’s how the hosts lined up last time out –

Let’s play some hockey.#LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/72SpxHU3Xq

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 17, 2022

Former King Jeff Carter is expected to skate on the third line this evening as he plays against many of his former teammates. Carter played 580 games with the Kings over 10 seasons and has faced the Kings just 10 times throughout his professional career, collecting five points (3-2-5) in that span.

Notes –
Team Growth & Identity
The Kings have certainly righted the ship here in the early goings.

The key word in that sentence is naturally early, which Todd McLellan noted in his morning availability today in Pittsburgh. Righting the ship might not even be a phrase worthy of using, because we’re talking about two games, but we’re seeing improvements in a variety of different areas here from the Kings as we get into the flow of the season.

“There are a lot of areas, it’s just not consistent enough yet,” McLellan said. “Better defensively the last two games, penalty kill has improved, fewer trips to the penalty box, goaltending has got better as the nights have gone on. Coming back and doing it the right way, we were down 3-1 to Seattle and we took some penalties in the third, didn’t give ourselves a chance and in Nashville, we drew penalties, so there are a lot of positive signs.”

McLellan has spoken substantially about the process of building and rebuilding identity throughout the course of the first couple weeks of the season. This morning, he was asked about resilliancy and how that factors into the process. Against Minnesota, it was the resilliance of overcoming six goals allowed. In Detroit, it was conceding in the final minute of regulation to force overtime, after missing the empty net. And, in Nashville, it was a 3-1 deficit in the third period.

All stops along the way on the road to identity.

“Identity is developed with a lot of characteristics that are unmeasurable,” he said. “You can’t chart them, they don’t show up in the analytics too often and [resilliancy] has to become part of the identity. After that, what do we look like while we’re doing it?”

Another shot tonight in Pittsburgh at continuing to build.

Third Line Makeup
The Kings made one in-game adjustment against Nashville, which was swapping wingers Arthur Kaliyev and Carl Grundstrom within the bottom six. Kaliyev began the game with Blake Lizotte and Brendan Lemieux, while Grundstrom started off with Quinton Byfield and Gabe Vilardi. The Kings opted to swap those wingers mid-game, with the move appearing to pay off for both players and both lines.

The Kings are currently looking for the right fit on the third line to replace Alex Iafallo, who will be “out for a little while” per Todd McLellan this morning. Iafallo was a natural fit there and clicked well early in the season with Byfield and Vilardi. He was defensively responsible, forechecked well and complemented the abilities of the other two. With Iafallo no longer an option, and Kaliyev expected to start in that spot tonight, replacing the “conscience” that Iafallo brought will be a shared effort.

“All three of them, they’re all capable, they’re all veterans now in the league,” McLellan said this morning. “None of them should feel uncomfortable playing in any situation, they have great experience, in fact, all of them should feel fairly confident right now. Arty had a real good bounce back game, he was engaged physically against a physical team, and all three of them have to pick up the clean-up responsibility of the defensive play, and they’re very capable.”

For Byfield’s part, nothing changes in terms of the approach that he and Vilardi are taking.

Though Kaliyev and Iafallo are different players, they both have their own ways of impacting games. Byfield is well aware, as we all are, of Kaliyev’s gifts in the offensive zone, specifically when it comes to shooting the puck. Iafallo’s game will certainly be missed, but Byfield is hopeful that Kaliyev can step right in and keep the momentum rolling.

“It’s the same mindset for me and G, but AI is a key piece to be missing for our team,” he said. “He does everything, he can play anywhere in the lineup, but Arty is an amazing player as well. He’s super offensive, he has that shot, so we just have to find him and he’s going to bury it. He’s a great replacement.”

Regarding Kaliyev specifically, he was a healthy scratch in Detroit on Monday evening but checked back into the lineup. As the only player who played on Tuesday that did not play on Monday, it shouldn’t be surprising that Kaliyev had a bit of jump against the Predators, and his play was noticeable in ways that go beyond offensive-zone contributions.

It’s that next step that McLellan and the staff are looking for when it comes to Kaliyev’s progress.

“For Arthur, he’s got a tremendous skill set that he’s relied on his whole life and it’s very useful for our group and in the National Hockey League,” McLellan said. “But, there are other things that have to happen when you’re not in that situation, and we’re trying to get him to expand his game a little bit now that he’s played. It’s a good sign for him and for us if you noticed that.”

As you wanted, Insiders, it’s Kaliyev – Byfield – Vilardi to get things going here from Pittsburgh!

Byfield on Earning Trust
Lastly, hear from Byfield on earning more trust from the coaching staff here in the early goings this season.

As detailed HERE yesterday, Byfield was on the ice alongside Gabe Vilardi and Brandt Clarke late in regulation, with the team down a goal. He and his fellow young teammates responded with contributions on Matt Roy’s game-tying goal late in the third period.

Byfield talked about feeling the trust of the staff this season, one factor in the confidence that he and Vilardi are playing with early in the season.

On the feeling of being trusted late in games to contribute
It’s just a good feeling to be out there, just being able to contribute on the play. Earning the coach’s trust to put us out there in a lot of different situations, luckily we scored that goal and I think it’s a big confidence booster for all of us. We’re all young guys here, and it’s just a trust factor there.

On if he feels the trust level the staff has in him has gone up from last season
Yeah, I think so, we’re playing later into games now. On the road, other teams can put their top lines against us and it’s not just taking us off, it’s trusting us against them, trusting that we can play against them and contribute against them. I think it’s definitely gone up a bunch.

Kings and Penguins, tonight at 4 PM Pacific. The Eastern swing concludes in Washington with the final stop of the trip on Saturday, before a flight home for a week back in California.