3/26 Preview – McLellan talks lineup options + Home Cooking, Danault on PK, Black & White

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (42-20-10) vs. St. Louis Blues (33-33-6)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Sunday, March 26 @ 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 will conclude a seven-game homestand this evening, as they host the St. Louis Blues for the final time this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Kevin Fiala leads the Kings with five points (1-4-5) from two games played against St. Louis this season, while forward Carl Grundstrom leads the Kings with three goals. Grundstrom has six goals versus the Blues over the last four seasons and no King has more in that span. Forward Gabe Vilardi (2-1-3) and defenseman Drew Doughty (1-2-3) each have three points in the season series to date.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings are on a back-to-back, but a different type of back-to-back, coming off the afternoon game yesterday. LA held a highly-optional morning skate today, consisting of just a few individuals.

The Kings are expected to turn to goaltender Pheonix Copley this evening, when he’ll matchup against his former team in St. Louis. Copley has faced the Blues just once in his NHL career to date, as he made 33 saves on 37 shots in a losing effort, back when he was a member of the Washington Capitals.

Regarding tonight’s lineup, let’s get weird, Insiders. Kevin Fiala is available, per Todd McLellan, who also added that tonight’s game could be one where the Kings work guys back into the lineup who had been out for a longer stretch, highlighting Sean Durzi as an option there. Durzi has been out of action since March 6, while Fiala hasn’t played since March 9.

“I think it’s important to get some guys back in and playing, get their games up and running, while we’ll need to do with Durzi, Kaliyev and Anderson-Dolan, players who haven’t played very much,” McLellan said. “Tonight will present an opportunity for some of them to go in, but not all of them.”

For tonight’s game, forward Blake Lizotte will not be available, after his hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety this morning resulted in a one-game suspension. The absense of Lizotte removes a center from the Kings lineup, meaning that the Kings could get creative with filling that spot. Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield and Gabe Vilardi are natural centers, while Trevor Moore has experience both in college and at the World Championships playing center. Moore won a key draw yesterday which led to Viktor Arvidsson’s game-opening goal. Kempe and Byfield have both played games in the middle this season, while Vilardi was almost exclusively a center until he was moved to the wing last season.

“When we look at our lineup, we look at roster needs, positional needs and pick players that can fill that role, we’ll do that tonight,” McLellan added. “Not only will it help us tonight, but maybe it’ll give us an idea of what we might be able to do later on.”

Regardless, though, the point is to say that the Kings have options. It’s just a matter of how they choose to deploy them.

While the Kings are not a playoff lock mathematically, the magic number is down to 8 with 10 games remaining. When everyone is both healthy and available, which has only been the case for the Kings for about a period and a half in Colorado, they have 10 forwards who have been used typically as “top-nine forwards”. The Kings have utilized a wide variety of options, in a variety of different ways, and Lizotte’s absence means we are guaranteed another new look this evening.

We’ll dive a bit deeper into the options the Kings have in a longer story tomorrow, with another 60 minutes worth of time to evaluate in the meantime.

BLUES VITALS: St. Louis enters tonight’s action on a five-game point streak, with a 4-0-1 record over that stretch.

Goaltender Jordan Binnington got the start for St. Louis yesterday evening in Anaheim, so we’ll expect the Blues to turn to Joel Hofer for tonight’s game in Los Angeles. Hofer, who was recently recalled from AHL-Springfield, has played just six games in his NHL career and has never faced the Kings.

Per Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, here’s how the Blues lined up yesterday evening in Anaheim –

#stlblues projected lineup vs. Anaheim tonight:

Neighbours-Thomas-Kyrou⁰Saad-Buchnevich-Kapanen⁰Blais-Schenn-Vrana⁰Toropchenko-Walker-Pitlick

Leddy-Parayko⁰Scandella-Faulk⁰Krug-Bortuzzo

Binnington

— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) March 25, 2023

Former Kings first-round pick Brayden Schenn is expected to center the third line this evening for the Blues. Schenn has 13 points (7-6-13) from 15 games played against the Kings over the last four seasons. Forward Pavel Buchnevich has 15 points (5-10-15) from 12 games played during the month of March, leading all St. Louis players.

Quick Hitters
Home Cooking
Yesterday afternoon, the Kings tied a franchise record for their longest-ever point streak, as they made it 11 straight games with a point.

Today, two additional franchise marks are on the line. The Kings enter tonight’s game against St. Louis with points in 12 straight games at Crypto.com Arena, one shy of the franchise record, set during the 1992-93 season. The Kings are also finishing up a seven-game homestand here tonight and enter the game against the Blues with a record of 4-0-2, good for 10 points. In franchise history, the best seven-game homestand is a mark of 5-1-1, set during the 1974-75 season. In that season, the second 1 was a tie, but 11 points is 11 points. The Kings would break that record with a win tonight and would tie it with an overtime or shootout defeat. A win tonight would also equal a franchise record for home wins in a single month.

Lot to take in there.

The streak is the streak and that’s something we’ll monitor here on the blogging side. For the team, there’s very little, if any, focus on any kind of streak but there is at least an acknowledgement that the team is playing well on home ice this season. The Kings are one of five teams in the NHL playing better than .700 hockey on home ice this season, the only team in the Western Conference that is doing so. While we’re pretty much beyond comparisons to last season at this point, it is in stark contrast to a team that ranked 19th on home ice a season ago, the second-lowest-ranked team that qualified for the postseason.

There’s not a “magic tonic” as McLellan puts it, but the team is taking care of business on home ice, there’s no doubt about that.

“We’re comfortable in our home environment, we think we get great support and energy from the fans,” McLellan said. “Other than that, there’s not a magic tonic to it, nothing that we’ve changed from years past, coming to a home game or approaching it. We’re just finding ways to win a few more.”

Speaking more generally than specifically about home ice, forward and alternate captain Phillip Danault is excited and encouraged by the consistency and predictability in the team’s game right now. Being predictable isn’t good when it comes to your opponents, but when it comes to your teammates, it’s the best kind of thing. Danault beleives the group has that right now and on a stretch when 10 of 11 have come at home, it’s showing in the results.

“Everyone wants to make a difference, everyone is dialed in, everyone is ready to play every single game,” Danault said of the team’s recent form. “You know what to expect from your teammates, that’s something special for me. When you go to the rink and you know what to expect going into a game, that’s a really nice feeling. When you know everyone is going to show up, there’s nothing better than that.”

Danault Talks PK
Danault also touched on the Kings penalty-killing efforts both yesterday and as of late. Danault, in many ways, is the perfect player to speak on last night’s game because he was involved in all of the key storylines. Drew Doughty is the same and touched on those areas last night, emphasizing he was happy with how the Kings handled the five-minute kill, though expressing disappointment the Kings couldn’t get it done scot-free for Lizotte. McLellan echoed similar sentiments in his post-game availability, with Danault agreeing and adding the importance of that unit going forward.

Danault on the penalty kill last night and overall
We’re preparing for the big games at the end of the year and we need to be good on the PK, it’s going to be a big part of the playoffs as well. I think it was pretty good last game and we’ve got to keep that going, game after game.

Danault on the confidence the Kings have in their goaltenders in PK-situations
We’re confident, yes, but we have to keep building on it until the end of the year. It was good last game, Korpi was solid, but Cops is good as well. We have two good goalies that want to make a difference, they’re both talented. Everyone seems to buy in here.

Black & White
Lastly, Insiders, a look at the most recent episode of Black & White, which focuses on Dustin Brown’s special night last month. A night to remember for all who were there and able to take part in it. Video embedded below!

Could have written 3,000 words before today’s game, to be honest, but condensing a bit for today and we’ll share more insight tomorrow! Kings and Blues, tonight at 7:30 PM from Crypto.com Arena. See you there!