3/9 Preview – Moore Activated + PPPenalties, Defending Colorado’s Defensemen, Common Spence

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (37-20-8) @ Colorado Avalanche (35-21-6)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, March 9 @ 6:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Ball Arena – Denver, CO
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings visit the Colorado Avalanche for the final time this season, their lone road game from a stretch of 11 contests.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forwards Alex Iafallo (1-1-2) and Viktor Arvidsson (0-2-2) each had multi-point nights when the Kings visited Colorado back in December. Iafallo leads the Kings with 10 points (4-6-10) over the last four seasons versus the Avalanche. Defenseman Sean Walker scored the game-tying goal in the first meeting of the season between the two sides.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held a full-team practice yesterday morning before traveling to Colorado and went with an optional skate this morning at Ball Arena.

Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo was off first this morning, making him the projected starter this evening in Colorado. Korpisalo has an all-time record of 3-2-0 from five appearances against Colorado throughout his career, to go along with a .894 save percentage and a 3.64 goals-against average.

For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up last time out –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Lizotte – Vilardi
Grundstrom – Kupari – MacEwen

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Edler – Durzi

Copley
Korpisalo

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) March 7, 2023

Projecting tonight’s lineup is tricky. We know about the change in net. We know that Sean Durzi will not play tonight. Per Todd McLellan, Trevor Moore is “good to go” and has been activated from injured reserve, though it’s unclear exactly where he’d slot in if he does in fact play tonight. There’s also a chance we see both Jordan Spence and Sean Walker in the lineup, but again, not sure exactly how that impacts the pairings. All of that to say, I’ll watch warmups this evening and update then.

AVALANCHE VITALS: Colorado has collected a point in 10 of its last 12 games entering tonight’s action. The Avalanche are currently on game three of a four-game homestand.

Per Jesse Montano of DNVR Sports, goaltender Alexander Georgiev is expected to get the start this evening for Colorado, his fourth straight start and his eighth from the team’s last nine games. Georgiev has faced the Kings twice throughout his NHL career, bringing with him a record of 0-1-1, in addition to a .908 save percentage and a 2.93 goals-against average.

Per Peter Baugh of The Athletic, here’s how the Avalanche lined up last time out versus San Jose –

#Avs line rushes:

Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Nicushkin
Rodrigues-Compher-Rantanen
Cogliano-Eller-O'Connor
Malgin-Newhook-Nieto

Toews-Makar
Byram-Girard
MacDermid-J. Johnson

Georgiev

Rodrigues back to the second line.

— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) March 8, 2023

Former Kings defensemen Kurtis MacDermid and Jack Johnson were a pairing in the win over the Sharks, though MacDermid is currently day-to-day with a lower-body injury. No player in the NHL has more assists (14) or points (20) versus the Kings over the last three seasons than Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen.

Notes –
PPPenalties
A trend that is certainly concerning to the players and coaches right now is that of taking penalties while on the power play. Against Washington on Monday, it happened three separate times to negate a Kings man advantage. The Kings were 0-for-5 on the PP in that game, but 60 percent of those opportunities were wiped away by penalties taken while already in a power-play situation.

The same thing happened four times on the recent five-game roadtrip, as the Kings killed off their own power plays with penalties almost once per game. Now comes what seems to be the more difficult part – fixing it. It’s not a drill you can practice or a skill you can fine tune. It simply boils down to understanding what’s going on and fixing it.

“I think it could be three things,” Todd McLellan said this morning. “One, staying too long on the power play, you get tired and you begin to reach, the fatigue factor. Two can be frustration because maybe it’s not going your way and three it’s just selfish. So, it’s one of those three and I think we can fix all of them.”

The players understand it and know it needs to be improved.

The Kings have been one of the NHL’s best teams on the man advantage all season long and they don’t want to waste the opportunities they’re getting with self-inflicted mistakes. The PP can be a huge weapon for the group and they know they want to make the most of those situations going forward.

Adrian Kempe – It’s something that we’ve got to clean up for sure and do better. Maybe frustration a little bit, when you were scoring before and it doesn’t go the way we want it to. Last game, we had so many chances and when it doesn’t go in, it can get a little frustrating.

Gabe Vilardi – I think it’s something you just have to execute. I took one last game, so I can’t really speak on it, but you want to be on the power play. Calls are getting tighter and you want to take advantage of every power play that you get.

Entering last game, the Kings had a power-play goal in three of four, though McLellan called the Washington game one of the first times in a long time that he felt the power play let the Kings down. Against a team like Colorado, which gives up the fourth-fewest 5-on-5 goals in the NHL, a power-play goal could make all the difference. It’s certainly an area of focus for tonight.

Defending The Defensemen
It is no secret that the Colorado Avalanche like to activate from the blueline.

No team in the NHL has more points from defensemen this season than Colorado does. If you look at their top four specifically, Cale Makar naturally jumps off the page, as he ranks fourth in the NHL in points-per-game (1.02), one of five blueliners currently averaging over a point-per-game. Beyond just Makar though, the trio of Bowen Byram, Samuel Girard and Devon Toews all average over a half-point-per-game. The Avalanche attack a lot of times as a five-man unit, rather than three forwards and two defensemen. It’s something everyone is aware of and needs to be, regardless of position.

From the defensive angle, Sean Walker spoke about the importance of limiting, starting with the forwards and going back to the defensemen.

“It’s something we’re going to talk about,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that [our forwards] at least get a bump on them, beat them up the ice and take away that option. We know they have some really skilled defensemen and we’ve got to make sure we’re on top of that.”

From the offensive angle, Vilardi knows how shifty and dangerous Colorado is on the backend.

In a typical alignment, the wingers are the players closest to the defensemen so naturally, you’d think it starts there, even though it’s more than just one position that has to be aware and responsible. Vilardi touched on the importance of being calm and not rushing into those situations, which makes you vulnerable against a group like that.

“Coming out to the point, you have to make sure you’re not just running out at them, they have guys who are going to move,” Vilardi said. “In their top four, I think all four of them have good moves, shimmy-shakes at the blueline. I think it’s about being calm and not just rushing out or they’re going to find the lane and move easily.”

Finishing with McLellan, he put the onus on the entire group, as opposed to calling it a forwards thing or a defensemen thing.

It’ll take the full, five-man unit to get the job done in those situations and that’s what McLellan is preaching to the group.

“I think anytime you play this team it’s a combination effort,” he said. “If you just think you can rely on forwards or defenseman alone to solve some of the problems, you’re likely in more trouble. They are very effective, especially the one pair, they’ve got almost 90 points combined between the two of them and they play like forwards. They’ve got outstanding legs that can get them back out of trouble, so they’re prepared to take a little more risk. If you’re on the ice against them, you better know what’s coming.”

Common Spence
Lastly, Insiders, it appears as if there’s a “real good chance” that we see Jordan Spence this evening in Colorado, per McLellan.

Talked a bit about the mobile defenseman yesterday and talked with the mobile defenseman today. Naturally a level of excitement in playing his first NHL games in more than two months and being back with the big club.

“It feels good, it’s always an honor to play with the Kings,” he said. “That’s what I look forward to every day when I’m with the Reign, to get called up and play games up here. I’ll be excited, but there’s a job to do tonight and that’s for us to win, so that’s the main goal.”

With AHL-Ontario, Spence has grown his game in a variety of ways. Last season, he was arguably the best offensive blueliner in the entire league, but he didn’t necessarily log the most difficult minutes defensively. Nor did he regularly penalty kill. Now in his second season, he’s taking those duties on, on top of his quarterbacking ability on the man advantage and he’s embraced the leadership angle of doing so.

“I think I’ve had more of a leadership role this year,” he said. “I’ve been playing a lot of penalty kill, I’ve been going against first lines on the other team. I think for me, my focus down with Ontario was to just focus on my defensive zone, really work on what I can do to improve on that and hopefully they can pay off down the road.”

Embedded in full below are McLellan’s thoughts on Spence and his growth this season in the AHL, as well as the hopes that he’ll apply that in the NHL!

Kings and Avalanche, tonight at 6 PM Pacific time. A tough test for sure, coming up soon!