12/15 Preview – What’s Required in Boston + Copley in net & notes on Kupari, Kopitar, Ovechkin

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (15-12-5) @ Boston Bruins (23-4-1)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, December 15 @ 4:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: TD Garden – Boston, MA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The LA Kings conclude a six-game roadtrip this evening against the NHL-leading Boston Bruins.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forwards Trevor Moore and Blake Lizotte each scored against the Bruins a season ago, with five Kings players expected to dress tonight collecting a point versus Boston in 2021-22. Lizotte has two goals over three games played against the Bruins.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held an optional team morning skate today from TD Garden, following yesterday’s full-team practice.

Goaltender Pheonix Copley was the first netminder off this morning for the Kings, making him tonight’s projected starter versus the Bruins, his second consecutive start. Copley has never faced the Bruins in his NHL career. From three NHL starts this season, Copley is 2-1-0, with a 3.33 goals-against average and a .884 save percentage, with much of the damage stemming from the third period in Buffalo.

For reference, here is how the Kings lined up last time out against Buffalo, with the optional skate not providing us with line rushes for tonight –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

Fiala – Kopitar – Kaliyev
Anderson-Dolan – Danault – Moore
Iafallo – Kempe – Vilardi
Grundstrom – Lizotte – Fagemo

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Bjornfot – Walker

Copley
Quick

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 13, 2022

Forward Viktor Arvidsson will not play tonight, for the second straight game, as he is back in California with his wife expecting the birth of their second child. Should the Kings opt to make any changes to Tuesday’s lineup, forward Rasmus Kupari is an option up front, while defensemen Alex Edler and Jordan Spence are available on the backend.

BRUINS VITALS: Tonight is game two of a five-game homestand for the Bruins, who are currently riding an unbeaten in regulation streak of 15 games on home ice to begin the season.

Goaltender Linus Ullmark was off first for the Bruins, making him tonight’s projected starter against the Kings. At home this season, Ullmark is 10-0-0, with a .941 save percentage and a 1.73 goals-against average. All-time versus Los Angeles, Ullmark is 4-0-1, with a .920 save percentage and a 1.96 goals-against average.

Per Boston’s team account, here’s how the group aligned during rushes this morning –

#NHLBruins morning rushes:

Marchand – Bergeron – DeBrusk
Zacha – Krejci – Pastrnak
Hall – Coyle – Frederic
Foligno – Nosek – Greer

Forbort – McAvoy
Grzelcyk – Carlo
Zboril – Clifton

Ullmark
Swayman pic.twitter.com/n6CW1r1eu9

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 15, 2022

Former Kings defenseman Derek Forbort is expected to play tonight against his former team. Three Boston skaters – Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak – are over a point-per-game this season at home. Boston’s 14 straight wins to open the season were an NHL record, three more than the second closest run.

What Is Needed Tonight
The Kings stuck to the gameplan right off the opening faceoff in Buffalo. They continued along those same lines throughout the majority of the second period as well, but ran into trouble – to put it mildly – towards the back half, both through penalties and a deviation from the style of play that they wanted to.

“The most impressive and important thing about that first half of the game was the ability to play towards a game plan,” Todd McLellan said. “Four lines rolling, six defensemen, everybody buying in and working towards three things that we set out to do. That was very well done for the first half of the game.”

The players could feel it at times throughout that stretch, with chances coming both in quantity and quality.

Phillip Danault felt that the Kings had enough Grade-A chances in that opening 30+ minutes that they should have not only scored, but scored multiple times. Had the Kings done that, we might be talking about a different concept or writing a different story.

“I thought we were playing really good, we should have had a couple of goals in the first and I think that could have changed the whole game,” Danault said. “I thought we had some great chances that could have [turned the game] the other way.”

The fact is though we’re not talking about that different story, where tonight’s game would be to make a fine road trip great. We’re in the world we live in where, where the Kings were not able to capitalize early and found themselves locked in a 0-0 game that should have been a lead for the visitors and as such, tonight’s game is to make a subpar road trip a decent one.

The end result of that story in Buffalo was the six-goal third period that we saw before us.

There are positive takeaways from the Buffalo game, even if it’s hard to see them. It wasn’t a 6-0 thrashing in the way that many times that scoreline is, because it was so targeted towards the back half of the game. Taking the first half, and applying it throughout the course of 60 minutes, is the first way forward and with Boston on the horizon, that’s step one.

“We have to start putting all 60 together and I think that comes with focus,” forward Alex Iafallo said. “We have to focus in the second period and when we get scored on, we have to play harder and harder, be smart out there, instead of [what we’ve been doing]. We have to stick together and play every shift as smartly as we can.”

McLellan honed in on the word “precision” this morning as something the Kings will need to have tonight.

At this stage in the season, it’s about a commitment of the entire group towards executing certain details and playing the game a certain way. If they’re able to do those things, the Kings will give themselves a chance against a very good opponent.

“We have to be very precise in what we do,” he said. “We’re 40 percent into the regular season now, there aren’t going to be a lot of dramatic changes to structure or anything like that, so we’re now talking about precision and consistently doing what we do……in Buffalo we believed we needed to do certain things, tonight against Boston, we’ll have to do certain things to have a chance at success. If we’re willing to do them, who knows where it ends up. If we’re not willing to do them, odds are we end up on the back end of it.”

Quick Hitters
Todd McLellan on Anze Kopitar quietly producing (6 Goals, 10 Points over Last 8 Games)
For Kopi, it’s not often a guy leads the team in scoring year after year after year and with good point totals, but we’re not talking about 120, or Connor McDavid type totals, so he’s never been that flashy, offensive player. As a result, I’m sure a lot of people want more from him when it comes to offense. If we continue to get what we’re getting from Kopi offensively, we’ll be fine. His value comes in a lot of different areas as well. The defensive side, his big body hauling people around and when our team needs some stabilizing, and some stand up in front of the room and lead, that has to be Kopi and it’s not measurable. It’s not witnessed or seen on TV cameras, it’s not reported about, but it’s a required need for every team at a certain point and he’s got to be able to provide that.

Rasmus Kupari on the differences between a top-six role in the AHL and a bottom-six role in the NHL
Yeah, it’s different. You have to get that mindset ready before the game, be really in there mentally because when you play a lot of minutes, it’s easier to get the rhythm going. It’s a little bit of a different role, but I’m just trying to bring my energy and my work ethic, get pucks in and forecheck really well, get into the game that way.

McLellan on Alex Ovechkin reaching 800 goals
You know you have a tendency, obviously, not to cheer for other teams, but there are some individual players you want to see do well. Maybe you’ve coached them or played with them before and you get excited when you see things like that happen. For Ovie to do that, the whole league should be excited. He scored 800 and a lot of those were against teams that I’ve coached. We didn’t like it at the time, but right now it’s pretty neat to be part of a league where a guy is doing that.

Kings and Bruins tonight at 4 PM Pacific, 7 PM Eastern before we head back across the country.