12/22 Preview – Optional Skate Today + Line 2(00-Feet), McLellan on PP, Moore Joins ATKM

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (18-12-5) vs. Calgary Flames (15-12-6)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, December 22 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings look to conclude a three-game homestand with a third consecutive home victory as they host the Calgary Flames for the first time this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Arthur Kaliyev led the way with two goals when these two teams met in Calgary in November, while forward Kevin Fiala (1-1-2) and defenseman Drew Doughty (0-2-2) each had multi-point games. Doughty has seven points (2-5-7) over his last six games played versus Calgary. Defenseman Alex Edler has more career points against the Flames (7-35-42) than any other opponent.

KINGS VITALS: Following a full-team practice yesterday, the Kings hit the ice for an optional morning skate today in El Segundo.

Todd McLellan confirmed that goaltender Pheonix Copley will get the start tonight versus the Flames, his fifth consecutive nod between the pipes. Copley has faced the Flames just once throughout his NHL career, as he made 27 saves on 30 shots to earn his first career NHL victory back on October 27, 2018.

Considering the optional skate, there was no opportunity to see line rushes today. Based on what we saw, plus what yesterday’s practice had to offer, here’s a projection for this evening’s alignment –

Fiala – Kopitar – Kempe
Iafallo – Danault – Moore
Arvidsson – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Anderson-Dolan – Kupari – Vilardi
Grundstrom – Lemieux

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Walker
Spence

Copley
Quick

Todd McLellan indicated that the Kings could have one change on the backend tonight. Defenseman Jordan Spence was on late after morning skate, which means it could be him coming out for Sean Walker, though it remains to be seen. Up front, Carl Grundstrom is available, as is forward Brendan Lemieux, who is also an option tonight as he was activated from injured reserve earlier today. Lemieux was on late after morning skate today, indicating his return may not come today, but we’ll see during warmups.

FLAMES VITALS: Calgary is currently on the third of four stops on a trip to California, with two games in San Jose behind them and a final stop in Anaheim to follow tomorrow evening. The Flames are 2-0-0 on the trip to date, with a pair of wins over the Sharks, and have points from five of their last six games overall (2-1-3).

Goaltender Dan Vladar was the first netminder off this morning for the Flames, making him tonight’s projected starter for the visitors. Vladar has yet to face the Kings during a 39-game NHL career to date. On the season, Vladar has posted a 5-4-2 record from 11 appearances, with a .905 save percentage and a 2.81 goals-against average.

Per Brendan Parker of Flames TV, here’s how Calgary aligned last time out in San Jose –

#Flames projected lines for a second straight tilt in San Jose.

Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli
Lucic-Kadri-Huberdeau
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Lewis-Ruzicka-Ritchie

Hanifin-Andersson
Weegar-Tanev
Zadorov-Stone

Markstrom makes a 5th straight start.

— Brendan Parker (@BParkerTV) December 21, 2022

The Flames have three forwards projected to play tonight – Trevor Lewis, Milan Lucic and Tyler Toffoli – who are former Kings players. Calgary scored two goals in the opening 30 seconds of their most recent game, tied for the fifth-fastest two goals in NHL history. Forward Elias Lindholm is tied for seventh in the NHL in scoring this month with 15 points (5-10-15) from 10 games played.

Notes –
Line 2(00 Foot Importance)
The Kings knew they have needed a bit more from their second line, from a 200-foot perspective, as of late.

It’s nothing that those involved have hid from, either. They’ve actually addressed it with great leadership.

“Phil and I haven’t been hard enough to play against lately,” Trevor Moore said bluntly back on the most recent road trip.

When you hear Rob Blake praise the leadership traits that Moore brings, part of that comes through with his ability to be critical of himself and his own play, understanding the importance of he and his line to the team, that stands out. Neither Phillip Danault nor Viktor Arvidsson have been ones to shy away, either, when needed, though when Arvidsson missed two final two games of the recent trip, the Kings were forced into a lineup change.

Over the last three games, that line has conceded just one goal, which came versus San Jose, but have generally been a bit more like themselves. The personnel makeup has been a bit different, with Alex Iafallo skating alongside Moore and Danault, while the regular right winger on that line, Arvidsson, has headlined a trio with Blake Lizotte and Arthur Kaliyev.

When Arvidsson departed the team to attend to his wife, who is expecting the couple’s second child, the Kings were forced to make a change with that line. With the team back here at home and Arvidsson available once again, the Kings opted to keep Iafallo with that group and try to find a new look on a separate line with Arvidsson, which chipped in with a very nice goal against Anaheim on Tuesday.

McLellan was quick to praise Arvidsson in that spot, and defensive issues have been team-wide, not specific to this line or to one player. McLellan feels that perhaps Iafallo gives that line a bit of a “defensive conscience” which can perhaps bring them back closer to their identity.

“I think Arvy is tremendous there and I have no issues putting him back there, I think Iafallo gives him a little bit more of a defensive conscience,” McLellan said. “When you’re at home and you can kind of match up a little bit better, it’s something we were looking for from that line. We challenged a couple of them on the road trip – Arvy wasn’t there at that time, so you can figure out who the couple is – about checking.”

McLellan understands how important Danault’s line is to the team, regardless of who the wingers are. We saw it early last season when it was Iafallo and Kempe and we saw it when the wingers became Arvidsson and Moore. The importance is the same with Iafallo on that line as well. The Kings need that elite, two-way game from that line to help shutdown the opposition’s best players while also contributing offensively. That line scored last game and they’ve been more of themselves from these three most recent victories.

“That’s who Phil is that’s how he got here, that’s how Mooresy got here,” he added. “Offense is a byproduct of all of that and they have to remember that. Al helps them do that.”

Speaking with Iafallo, he believes that the three players share a mindset when playing together and that’s simple – go get the puck, but do so responsibly.

Iafallo is a puck hunter and the same descriptor can be used when referring to Danault or Moore as well. It’s also used to describe Arvidsson, which is why Iafallo can be a seamless fit when it comes to forechecking. As McLellan noted though, the line has to be responsible defensively as well which Iafallo said as well. When hunting the puck, having a man high to be ready to go back the other way is important as well.

“We’re just trying to get on the forecheck, get the puck and recover it, get it up top or go to the net,” he said. “I feel like at the same time we have good communication where it keeps a guy high, waiting for a puck or ready to play defensively, so we’ve got to keep communicating like that.”

Power-Play Process
Look, we all loved that stretch where the Kings were scoring every other time they took the ice and clicked around 50 percent on the man advantage.

Would have certainly been nice if the 2022-23 LA Kings surpassed the percentage of the AHL record-setting 2021-22 Ontario Reign, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Kings were outstanding in that stretch and the power play was carrying them to points in the standings. It’s been a bit colder as of late, but even still, the Kings have scored a power-play goal in eight consecutive games here at home and have buried one in each of their last three games, all victories.

It’s not that flaming-hot percentage from earlier this season, but it’s still building momentum and still impacting wins.

“We were running really hot for a while and that rate was unsustainable, you go hot and cold for a little bit, but that rate that we were scoring at was going to be unsustainable or it would have been an NHL, all-time record,” McLellan said. “Since that hot run, we’ve played quite well in those situations and created momentum for our group. They’re not always going to be Picassos, but I thought the other night in particular, against Anaheim, once we got onto power play, we got a little more momentum out of it and gained some steam. It provided us what we needed.”

Speaking with defenseman Sean Durzi the other day, he talked about how generating momentum from special teams can be almost as important sometimes as scoring in that situation. Whether it’s a strong PP performance that keeps the team going forward, or a big kill that gets the bench up and energized, momentum is a key aspect of special teams and it’s an important part of the game.

So are power-play goals, though. Overall this season, the Kings are clicking at 23 percent this season on the power play, vastly superior to last season’s totals. 23 percent is good for 15th in the NHL, so right around league average. How many times last season did we wonder aloud that if the Kings could have just had a league-average power play, how many more points would they have had, or could they have gotten through the first round of the playoffs? I remember saying it and reading it very often……right now, they’re there.

Whether it be the Kings, or around the NHL, teams are playing and attacking differently on the man advantage and it’s showing up in the results.

“I think there’s a bit of an evolution on the power play right now, particularly in-zone, and teams are attacking different ways than they were 10 years ago, five years ago even,” McLellan said. “The league has picked up on it, it’s a bit of a copycat league, if it’s working, let’s try it, so I think that’s going on. Shots are coming from different spots, that goaltenders aren’t as accustomed to reacting to. Not necessarily from the spot, but how the puck gets to that spot may be a little different.

ATKMoore
Lastly, Insiders, a fun interview with Kings forward Trevor Moore on the All The Kings Men podcast, which dropped earlier this morning.

Moore recently signed a five-year contract extension with the organization and touched on his wanting to be a part of this team, along with several other fun topics, in the 20-minute interview. Listen to the full hit below –

Kings and Flames, tonight at 7:30 PM Pacific time in a big, divisional showdown. See you there!