10/26 Practice – Today’s Alignment + First Line Makes Progress, The JADebut, Pinelli’s Hot Start

Practice Day, Insiders!

We’ve reached a bizarro world where the Kings are able to practice twice in three days. Crazy stuff.

The team was back on the ice earlier today at Toyota Sports Performance Center, with eyes now set on tomorrow’s opponents, the Winnipeg Jets. Coming off of perhaps the best 60 minutes of the season yesterday evening against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Kings are looking to build off of that performance with two more here at home over the next three days.

A bit of housekeeping, forward Viktor Arvidsson was not on the ice this morning for practice, after he missed yesterday’s game with an illness. To recap Arvidsson’s day yesterday –

Arvidsson did not skate in the morning, but it was an optional skate so nothing out of sorts there. Todd McLellan indicated before the game that the Kings had one decision to make coming out of warmups, which turned out to be Arvidsson. The Swede took warmups and line rushes as normal, but McLellan said that he didn’t feel well enough to play and was ruled out with an illness between warmups and puck drop.

And here we are. The Kings alignment from today is as follows, sans number 33 –

Fiala – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Vilardi
Anderson-Dolan – Byfield – Kaliyev
Lemieux – Lizotte – Grundstrom

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Clarke
Walker

Quick
Petersen

Starting to feel a little bit more like routine here for the Kings, both in terms of schedule and what we saw with last night’s performance against Tampa Bay. Good signs and good tendencies from yesterday and we’ll see how that rolls over throughout the rest of the week.

Killer K’s Coming Along
A lot of the conversation over the last few days has centered around the chemistry and the coming together of the top forward line for the Kings.

The unit of Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala on the wings, around center Anze Kopitar, is a line that carries a ton of potential at both ends of the ice, at least on paper. We’ve seen some really exciting glimpses into how that translates to the ice, but also a bit of frustration as well, in Kempe’s words. He felt that last night the line did a better job of taking care of the defensive aspect of the game, especially as the night went on, which then led to increased offensive opportunities and eventually the reward of Kempe’s goal in the third period.

“I think it’s coming together more and more,” Kempe said this morning. “We haven’t scored as much as we’ve wanted to but we’ve still had chances and we’ve got to take care of our own zone first. That’s way we’ve been playing, that’s the way the Kings play, we’ve done that for many years. We take care of our zone, we’re going to get chances and we’re going to frustrate teams and then start getting more chances and goals. We have to keep doing that, I think it showed a little bit yesterday which is a good thing for our line.”

Speaking with Todd McLellan, he reiterated, in a different way, a notion that he’s been talking about for weeks now, which is the concept of not only finding your individual game early in the season, but finding your game within the team’s game.

Fiala has never played for the Kings before this season, so his way of playing has been different in some ways, where as Kopitar and Kempe have the LA Kings approach engrained into their own DNA. McLellan felt that the trio took steps in that direction last night, as Kempe did, towards being a line that starts with the defensive responsibility and then translates it into the offense. When they get to that offensive part of the game, the possibilities are scary with the traits that all three possess, especially considering the speed of Kempe and Fiala on the rush.

“When you bring a new offensive player in, I’m talking about Kevin now, you pop him onto that line and everybody’s thought goes to offense and driving plays. Kevin is very good at that. The DNA of Kopi and Juice it’s from our end out and I’m not saying Kevin’s DNA is different, they’re just trying to mesh all of that together. I think Kevin will get to that point with Kopi and Kempe, eventually, where they realize that it starts here and goes that direction.”

It certainly trended that way last night. While out attempted from a Corsi point of view, the line was +4 in terms of shots on goal, conceding just four total at 5-on-5. They were also even on high-danger chances. McLellan talked about the importance being two-fold there when it comes to comparing chances with the opposition, because that line plays against the other team’s high-level opposition. So there’s an importance both with creating and limiting.

Kempe believes the line did a better job of handling their game within the game of the team, starting in their own zone and taking things from there.

“Going back to last year, the way the entire team played we were good in the d-zone and eventually we’ll get our chances,” Kempe added. “At the start of the season, I think we’ve been playing a little bit too risky offensively. We won some games and scored a lot of goals but defensively hasn’t been where we want it to be. I think we showed up in the right direction yesterday and hopefully we can keep that going.”

Breaking JAD
Last night marked the season debut for forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan, who was the late addition into the lineup in place of Arvidsson.

Anderson-Dolan has patiently waited for his opportunity this season. He made the NHL club out of training camp but was a healthy scratch over the first seven games of the season, as one of 14 forwards on the roster. Anderson-Dolan is a versatile option, with the ability to play both center and wing, and in many ways his makeup is what you want to see in an extra forward. Back during training camp, Todd McLellan talked about the need to have a trusting player in those types of roles and Anderson-Dolan fits that bill.

“He does and he has,” McLellan said of Anderson-Dolan fitting the bill of a trusting player. “If we go back to his entry into the lineup in Vegas the year before last, he came in and he had a tremendous game that night and got better as it went along. Then he got a shoulder injury and went back out, that’s not his fault, that’s just what happens in the game and it was tough to get his footing underneath him again. He’s been patient, he’s worked hard, he’s kept himself ready and strange circumstances again last night. He got called upon and I thought he played a real solid game.”

That’s not to say Anderson-Dolan aspires to be a 13th forward. Quite far from that. He’s frequently the first player on the ice in the mornings, putting in extra work, sometimes with coaches and sometimes on his own, to stay sharp and get his reps during practices and morning skates.

It’s rarely easy to stay at your best when you go seven games without playing, but Anderson-Dolan has done his best to treat those practice opportunities as his game situations. That allowed him to be sharp, which he was, when he made his season debut last night.

“If you’re not playing, it’s a chance to get better and to take advantage of the extra ice time out there,” he said. “It’s something I’ve really tried to key in on, just control what I can and be ready when the time comes.”

Anderson-Dolan’s game is based as much around skating and energy as anything else.

We saw the speed that he can bring on a rush during the second period where he used wide speed to burn his defenseman and gain the offensive zone without issue, leading to a good scoring chance. And that was coming in without a game since the preseason ended. Anderson-Dolan has put a ton of focus into his own conditioning, both mental and physical, to remain sharp even when he wasn’t in the lineup. It’s something that went a long way last night and should only continue to improve as time goes on.

“Conditioning, that’s all, just trying to keep your game legs as much as you can. When you’re watching the game, try to key in and keep your mental focus so when the time comes, you know what to do in those situations. I’ve been here for a few years now, so it’s the same system and it’s pretty easy to jump back into it.”

Francesco…..That’s Fun To Say

Francesco Pinelli (@CePinelli71) has five goals in his last three games 🔥🔥🔥

The @OHLRangers captain walks right up Main Street and snipes one #BestOfOHL

CC: @LAKings 👀 pic.twitter.com/YoPHgsryIy

— OntarioHockeyLeague (@OHLHockey) October 26, 2022

Lastly, a glimpse into the start to the season for Kings prospect Francesco Pinelli, who has eight goals from his first eight OHL games with the Kitchener Rangers. Pinelli has five goals over his last three games, including a hat trick over the weekend and two more goals last night. Pinelli is tied for the league lead with eight goals so far this season, in a terrific start. More to follow with a larger feature on Pinelli in the near future!