1/5 Preview – Full-Team Skate Today + Lemieux In & Moverare Up, Defensive Consistency, Injury Update

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (22-13-6) vs. Boston Bruins (29-4-4)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, January 5 @ 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 stretch of difficult opposition continues here for the Kings, as they host the NHL-leading Boston Bruins this evening.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Adrian Kempe scored two goals when these teams met in Boston in December. Kempe is one of ten players this season with multiple goals against the Bruins this season. Eight of the last 11 games between the Kings and Bruins have been one-goal games, including LA’s 3-2 victory at TD Garden last month.

KINGS VITALS: Following an off-ice workout for the team yesterday morning, the Kings returned to the ice for a full-team skate today at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

Goaltender Pheonix Copley was off the first this morning and he is tonight’s expected netminder against the Bruins, his second consecutive start. Copley earned the shootout win in Boston back on December 15 with 33 saves on 35 shots, in what was his first career start versus the Bruins.

Listed below are this morning’s line rushes from the Kings perspective –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Walker

Copley
Quick

The Kings are expected to make one lineup change this evening from the group that played Dallas on Tuesday, with forward Brendan Lemieux checking back into action in place of forward Carl Grundstrom. Tonight would mark Lemieux’s third game since he returned from injury late last month and his first of 2023. More on him below.

BRUINS VITALS: Boston begins a three-game California roadtrip this evening against the Kings. The Bruins enter tonight’s action on an 11-game point streak (8-0-3), a run that includes the shootout loss against the Kings earlier this season.

Per Matt Porter of the Boston Globe, goaltender Jeremy Swayman is expected to get the nod this evening to begin the roadtrip. Swayman has faced the Kings once in his NHL career, a 34-save shutout here in Los Angeles back in February of 2022, a 7-0 Boston victory.

Per Porter, here’s how the Bruins lined up during yesterday’s practice, an expectation of how they could look this evening –

Bruins practice lines in El Segundo:

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
Hall-Krejci-Zacha
Foligno-Coyle-Frederic
Greer-Nosek-Smith (who plays what wing unclear at this point)

Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Lindholm-Carlo
Forbort-Clifton
Zboril

Ullmark
Swayman

— matt porter (@mattyports) January 4, 2023

Boston is without forward Jake DeBrusk, who was placed on LTIR by the team earlier this morning. Former Kings defenseman Derek Forbort is expected to dress tonight for the Bruins against his former team. Boston center Patrice Bergeron enters tonight’s game ranking second in the NHL in faceoff percentage (61.6%), one of just seven players to rank above Anze Kopitar.

Notes –
Making (Lineup & Roster) Moves
A pair of move today, Insiders, one apiece of the lineup and roster variety.

First things first, as noted above, expect to see forward Brendan Lemieux make his return to the lineup this evening against Boston. Lemieux was activate from injured reserve shortly before the holiday break and made his return from a lower-body injury in games on December 23 and December 27. He was replaced by forward Carl Grundstrom in Colorado on December 29 and hasn’t played until tonight.

Lemieux had the same injury a season ago and it took him some time to get back into it. Without the luxury of much practice time – he didn’t get a true practice between his activation and his first game – it was difficult to get back on track. He’s had that now and Todd McLellan believes tonight is the right time to reintegrate him into the lineup.

“Brendan Lemieux has to play, he’s got to get his game going and this is his opportunity to get his game going,” McLellan said thi morning. “I understand people get hurt and it’s hard to come back, especially from lower-body injuries. If you look at Iafallo, he’s just really getting going now and we saw Brendan’s injury last year and what it did to his game, but we need him. He’s a valuable player that needs to play, but it’s also on him to get his game going.”

Lemieux spoke candidly about the difficulties surrounding his return specifically. Sometimes, what’s best for the LA Kings was necessarily what was best for Brendan Lemieux. The holiday break came at a tough time, as did a 3-in-4 and a travel day, none of which presented Lemieux with a true, hard practice day until January 2. When the team needed rest, Lemieux needed the opposite and he wasn’t able to get it until this week.

“His circumstances were pretty tough, he came back right before Christmas, then had another break, probably last thing he needed and then got up and running again,” McLellan added. “It hasn’t been easy based on timing, but it really never is. It’s hard and he’s a big man, that has to get a big body around the rink and he needs his legs to do that. He should have them now.”

Now, he has had that time and the Kings believe Lemieux is an important facet of their group when fully healthy. He offers a different element and he embraces his role about as well as anyone on the team does. See how he works back in against the NHL’s leading team.

Additionally, the Kings have recalled defenseman Jacob Moverare from AHL-Ontario this afternoon, rounding out their roster.

The Kings had just six defensemen – more on that below – coming in and with the team headed to Vegas tomorrow afternoon, it was unlikely they’d travel with just the minumum. Enter in Moverare, who is no stranger to the group and no stranger to spot starts when needed. No sense he’ll go tonight, considering the full-team morning skate, but good to see him back nonethelesss.

Moverare has skated in 2 NHL games with the Kings this season and 21 in total. He also has five assists from 20 games with AHL-Ontario so far this season.

Defensive Consistency
“If you look at our pairs this year, 44 and 8 played together in the past, but it’s been broken up, not because of playing, but due to injuries and consistency of them being there. With Durz and Royzie, Durz going from right to left, it’s a new position to learn and completely different, quite frankly. Then you’ve got Edler and Walker, who hadn’t played much together because of injuries. Eddy came in as a new player last year and Walks played six games and that was it. Those pairs, establishing familiarity, it’s beginning to happen and I’m sure they’re more comfortable with steady partners than [the alternative].”

That was Todd McLellan the other day, building off of an observation made that the Kings have generally rolled with the same three pairs on the backend as of late, stemming most importantly from health to this point, as well as more reliable output.

The Kings have three pairs this season with more than 290 minutes played together and no other pairs in triple digits. Through the halfway mark a season ago, there were five pairs over 100 minutes and a sixth just two seconds below. Last season, no one pair had reached the 250-minute mark together, which is well below where the third pair of Alex Edler and Sean Walker lie right now.

We talk a lot about line combinations up front but we talk much less so about pairings on the backend. The Kings have utilized consistency with pairings, especially as of late, with no changes since the team returned from the holiday break, which has coincided with stronger play on the ice. Hear from the Seans – Durzi and Walker – on the benefits to the consistency.

Sean Durzi – You go through the ups and downs with a partner and you go through it together. It’s really nice, communication is easier, we know what we want from each other and you kind of get used to playing with that person, you know where they’re going to be. and all of that stuff.

Sean Walker – This year has been a little bit more steady, some changes here and there, but for the most part it’s been similar. You get into a rhythm with your d-partner, so it’s been nice to have steady pairings going.

Since the Buffalo game, which has been commonly referred to as a turning point, none of the three defensive pairings are below 50 percent in goals for/against, or the expected versions. Shot attempts, scoring chances and high-danger chances are also on the right side of 50 for all three pairings.

It’s unlikely we’ll see that level of consistency over the course of the final 41 games, it’s a lonnnnnnnng way to go, but while the Kings have it, it’s been good signs for the group.

Injury Update
Lastly, Insiders, sharing the latest with regards to forwards Arthur Kaliyev and Trevor Moore. You know the designations by now, both players are day-to-day and have yet to re-join the full group for a practice at this time. A positive update, however, as shared by McLellan this morning, is that he believes Moore has skated on his own at this time, which is a good step towards potentially rejoining the group for practice.

Both players will not play tonight against Boston or on Saturday in Vegas, but McLellan left the door open – potentially – for Monday against Edmonton.

“Neither skated today, so they’re not going to be, obviously, in the lineup tonight and they won’t play on Saturday,” he said. “After that, Monday, we’ll see how that happens, but they’re going to need some practices under their belts, because they’ve both been out for a little while now.”

Likely not a sitiation where we don’t see these players practice first before playing, as McLellan implied, so we’ll get more of a sign that one or both could be closer once we see them formally with the group.

Kings and Bruins, the second straight against a division leader, tonight at 7:30 PM from Crypto.com Arena. See you there!