Practice 2/9 – Injury Updates: Kaliyev/Moore Skate, Grundstrom/Vilardi Out + 1st Day Back Reactions

The Kings are back!

The team took the ice today for their first practice since returning from the combination of an All-Star break and a bye week. The Kings know that they have two days to get situated before hosting Pittsburgh on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena. Today’s practice was focused, in Todd McLellan’s words, on the LA Kings exclusively, not related to Saturday’s game versus the Penguins. It also contained a lengthy scrimmage componant during the second half of the skate.

“Today had nothing to do with the Pittsburgh Penguins and how they play, what they do, what we need to be aware of, it was completely LA Kings based,” McLellan said of today’s skate. “It had structure, system elements to it, but it also had game management elements in a scrimmage, you have to make line changes at the right time. We made it competitive, so one team played against the other team, we changed jersey colors to make it more real and more readable. Today was one-hundred percent about us and nothing to do with Pittsburgh or Buffalo.”

The team aligned in two jersey colors today, as opposed to the traditional alignment. Forward Trevor Moore skated in a non-contact, red jersey which provided one additional color, but overall the Kings set up in the following alignment –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore (R) – Danault – Arvidsson
Fiala – Lizotte – Iafallo
Anderson-Dolan – Lemieux – Kupari – Kaliyev

Black – Anderson, Doughty, Durzi
White – Roy, Edler, Walker

Copley / Quick

Looking at that group, forwards Arthur Kaliyev and Trevor Moore were skating today, their first practice back with the main group since before the roadtrip that ended last month. Forwards Carl Grundstrom and Gabe Vilardi did not skate with the group today, though they did skate on their own earlier in the day. Todd McLellan provided the following update on his injured forwards –

“Today was obviously the first day we could bring guys back, Arthur practiced in a regular jersey and he was fine, I would say that he’s ready to play on Saturday, he’ll get another skate in. Trevor Moore, full practice in a non-contact jersey and he’ll be evaluated tomorrow to see how the day went, he’s really close. The other two, Grundstrom and Gabe, obviously didn’t skate with us, they did skate a little on their own in the morning. That’s a positive sign, but they will not be ready [for Saturday].”

Grundstrom, Kaliyev and Moore remain on injured reserve as of this writing, while Vilardi is currently still on the active roster. The Kings don’t need to make any moves until Saturday, in advance of the game against Pittsburgh. Kaliyev should be activated and Moore appears to be trending in the right direction as well. A lot of time between now and then, we’ll see how the next two days go.

In a lot of instances, getting those guys back in can provide a bit of a jolt to a group. Seeing familiar faces, especially in regulars like Kaliyev and Moore, can be good. This is a bit of a different circumstance, however, as the entire team hasn’t been together in more than a week. So, in that sense, perhaps it’s the best possible time to re-integrate those players back in.

“They‘re players that the team believes can help win games and I think the group is excited about having them,” McLellan added. “The odd part is, coming off the break, everything seems brand new and I think it’s a good time for both of them to be joining the group. They sure don’t look out of place, so I don’t know if that means they’ve done a really good job of getting their game back on their own, or whether everybody’s really rusty. I guess we’ll find that out.”

As McLellan touched on, and later expanded upon, Kaliyev and Moore were perhaps among the best conditioned individuals during today’s practice.

Both have been skating on their own throughout the break the rest of the team was able to enjoy. Being injured, eight days off was probably the last thing that either guy needed, but at the same time, skating on your own at length is a lot for players who are getting back into shape. It’s certainly more so than the rest of the group had,

“Arthur and Trevor have been skating, they didn’t get the 10-day break or whatever it was because they’re injured and they have to have treatments and stuff like that,” McLellan added. “Those two probably should have their legs and their hands much more than the players that haven’t skated in 11 days and I think that was the case today in practice, you could see that a little bit. So, perhaps for those two, it’s easier to integrate right out and if we were playing every second night.”

The Kings are scheduled to skate again tomorrow at 11 AM, where we’ll get a better sense of the progression regarding Moore, as well as any potential changes to the alignment we saw today. The Kings still have just six defensemen on the roster, meaning we could see roster movement between now and Saturday’s game.

First Day Back Reactions
Today was probably one of the most challenging practice days of the season, as the Kings took to the ice after their longest break since Day 1 of training camp. Most of the group hasn’t been on the ice since January 31, when the Kings played in Carolina, the first practice for the team since January 30.

A plethora of guys touched on the first day back below –

Challenges Of The First Day Back
Sean Durzi – Getting your mind back into it, I think the guys were a little bit tired, there was a little bit of a punishment at the end with a skate and I think that made the intensity a little bit better. We’re coming into a team that’s had a few games already, so we know we have to get back into it sooner than normal.

Adrian Kempe – Conditioning, probably, just getting back into the flow of practicing. Haven’t been on the ice for a while, so the on-ice conditioning I think is the toughest thing, it always is. Good work day today and hopefully we’ll feel better tomorrow.

Anze Kopitar – The first one is not so much fun, everything feels off, but it’s good to get it out of the way and get ready for Saturday. I think the worst part is just that the body’s not cooperating with the mind and how you want to do it, but it’ll come eventually, I’m not too worried about it.

On Having Scrimmage Elements To Practice
Mikey Anderson – It was nice to do it, just to kind of get more game-like situations, a little bit more speed. It’s tough, after a few days off, jumping right back into it, but playing in a [scrimmage] makes you think, move and do everything you’d do in a game. It’s hard to set those up in drills, so being able to play is the best way to get it back.

Drew Doughty – It forces you to feel some contact, regular gameplay, as opposed to just doing drills. I like it better personally. It was tough, we only had six D, so we had to double shift, which was hard. I think it’s way better than just doing drills the whole time, it forces you to get right into it and forced us to work. We’re all pretty tired in here today.

Jonathan Quick – You’re trying to get your body going and your brain, looking at situations. Seeing 10 guys on the ice, trying to predict what’s going to happen, you need those types of situations for sure.

Back at it again tomorrow, will full coverage to follow once again here on LAKI! Hope to chat with Kaliyev and Moore as they become available, as well as reactions from those on the team heading into the Dustin Brown retirement on Saturday night. A balancing act for sure, but a clear focus today on taking care of the on-ice side of things first and foremost.

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