4/10 Preview – Anderson Set To Return + Morning Rushes, Copley Masterton, Portillo ATO, Fan Appreciation

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (45-25-10) vs. Vancouver Canucks (36-36-7)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Monday, April 10 @ 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: It’s the final home game of the regular season, and the penultimate game of the regular season in full, as the Kings host Vancouver.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forwards Blake Lizotte (2-1-3) and Arthur Kaliyev (1-2-3) lead the Kings with three points from three games against the Canucks so far this season, while forward Alex Iafallo has two goals from two games played.

KINGS VITALS: Following an off day yesterday, the Kings held an optional morning skate today in El Segundo.

The Kings will likely turn to goaltender Joonas Korpisalo this evening, after he was the first netminder off following this morning’s skate. Korpisalo has faced the Canucks seven times throughout his professional career, posting a record of 3-2-2, with a .903 save percentage and a 2.80 goals-against average.

The Kings held a full-team skate today, with line rushes shown below –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Grundstrom – Kupari – Anderson-Dolan

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Durzi – Walker

Koprisalo
Copley

This morning skate shows that forwards Alex Laferriere and Zack MacEwen and defenseman Tobias Bjornfot were among those not included in formal rushes. MacEwen did not play against Colorado on Saturday, while Bjornfot is back with the team on an emergency recall. Though defenseman Mikey Anderson is expected to play tonight and did take rushes, he’s still coming off an injury, hence the emergency recall. Laferriere will not play tonight, per Todd McLellan, as he gets adjusted to the group.

CANUCKS VITALS: The Canucks are tied for the fifth most wins in the NHL since the trade deadline, bringing a 12-4-2 record since that date into tonight’s action.

San Diego native Thatcher Demko has been the goaltender of record for the Canucks in 16 of their last 20 games but it will be Rancho Cucamonga native Collin Delia expected in net tonight. Delia has a lifetime mark of 1-2-0 versus the Kings, with a .905 save percentage and a 3.75 goals-against average.

Per Brandon Batchelor of Sportsnet, here’s how the Canucks lined up last time out –

Warmup #Canucks lines vs. @NHLFlames

Kravtsov-Pettersson-Garland
Di Giuseppe-Miller-Boeser
Joshua-Åman-Studnicka
Kuzmenko-Dries-Beauvillier

Hughes-Burroughs
Hirose-Myers
Bear-McWard

🥅#DemkoTime 🥅

7pm on @Sportsnet650 https://t.co/5URkcFMDBa pic.twitter.com/tbVUhfug9K

— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) April 9, 2023

Vancouver forward Brock Boeser enters tonight’s action riding a ten-game point streak versus the Kings, with goals in nine of those 10 games. Though not expected to play tonight, former Kings defenseman Christian Wolanin is on Vancouver’s roster. Both of Vancouver’s goaltenders – Demko and Colin Delia – are California natives.

Notes –
Magic Mikey
Good to see a lineup return, Insiders.

Defenseman Mikey Anderson is expected to play tonight against the Canucks, per Head Coach Todd McLellan. Anderson took line rushes in his usual spot alongside defenseman Drew Doughty and should step back into his role.

Returning in the second-to-last game of the regular season is nothing new for Anderson. In fact, he did it a season ago, though under vastly different circumstances. After he took a reverse hit in Boston in early-March, 2022, Anderson missed around six weeks with a rib injury, though he played in the season-ending back-to-back, which preceeded the seven-game series versus Edmonton. This season, he’s essentially missed six games, including the game he was injured in, which makes his transition a bit easier in coming back.

“Yeah, it helps, it also helps that I missed six games or whatever was, so it wasn’t as severe as last year,” Anderson said this morning. “It helps having gone through it, knowing the process of the rehab skates and how to feel coming back. Nice to get a couple of practice runs before playoffs come around.”

Anderson called the hit that took him out of the lineup “over with” as he preferred to focus on his return to the lineup and getting back with the group over the final two games in the regular season.

Seeing the Kings drop a few games in his absence made it that much more difficult to be out of the lineup, though with a competitor like Anderson, he’s always a guy who wants to get his way back into action as soon as possible.

“It sucks when you’re hurt, you’re not with the group, you’re kind of on an island,” he said this morning. “You don’t have much impact on the game but you’re trying to be around the guys, whether you practice or you’re just around the rink. It’s tough when you’ve got no impact, you watch things happen and you can’t have a voice or go out and play at all. So it’s frustrating, but at the same time, it’s part of it. Happy to be back with the group now and try and keep pushing forward.

One constant for him coming back is his partnership with Drew Doughty.

Anderson and Doughty have now played together for the better part of three seasons, forming one of the NHL’s most relied-upon pairings and one of its best defensive duos, particularly as it pertains to suppression metrics. There’s no need to learn the tendancies of a new partner because Anderson and Doughty are already familiar with each other.

“That makes it super easy,” Anderson said of his familiar pairing. “He’s easy and hard to play with, all at the same time, but having done it for three years now, I’m obviously very comfortable and familiar with what he wants to do. Having a partner, it’s nice to come into it and kind of expect what’s going to happen, [I can] just go out there and play free like we normally do.”

Having the top pairing reunited also slots everyone else into their regular spots in the batting order. Vladislav Gavrikov moves back alongside Matt Roy on the second pairing which leaves The Seans – Durzi and Walker – on a third pairing with arguably the team’s two most versatile defensemen.

“It just slots people back to where they been comfortable, and we’ve been comfortable with,” McLellan added. “Drew’s an outstanding player, but he does certain things that a common partner picks up on and can read and react to. Gavy with Matt Roy was a very good pair. Just those four, your top-four D, getting slotted properly and playing with a common partner that they’ve had some experience with, makes a difference. Then, Durz playing on the left side, he’s been there more than the right side and Walks with his legs can make a difference. We feel comfortable with that.”

With only Alexander Edler still out of the lineup, the Kings are close to full health on the backend. A good look at what the group could potentially look like, coming up this evening.

Rise Of The Pheonix

The Los Angeles chapter of @ThePHWA announces Pheonix Copley (@PheonixCopley) as its nominee for the 2023 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

— Dennis Bernstein (@DennisTFP) April 10, 2023

Insiders, a stick tap to Kings goaltender Pheonix Copley, who was nominated by the LA Chapter of the PHWA as the organization’s nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy, awarded annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey.

Copley signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Kings last summer to fill a veteran void at the AHL level, with the ability to play in the NHL if the situation arose. When the situation did arise, less than two months into the season, Copley took his opportunity and never looked back, becoming the team’s most-used goaltender over the course of the season and earning himself a one-year contract extension with the Kings, of the one-way variety this time out.

“It’s a very big honor to have that nomination,” he said this morning. “There are a lot of great guys on the team, so for me to have that honor, I’m just super honored and super humbled.”

A terrifically, well-deserved nod for Copley. The Alaska native addressed the media following today’s morning skate, but at the expense of seeing a worthy story get lost in the coverage of a game day, we’ll take a deeper dive into Copley’s nomination tomorrow. A terrific nod for a player who rarely prioritizes his own accomplishments.

PORTILL(AT)O
Lastly, the Ontario Reign made things official with goaltender Erik Portillo, who joined the AHL club on an ATO earlier this morning. Portillo took part in his first official practice with the Reign shortly after the announcement was made.

Portillo beginning his professional career at this time represents confirmed value coming off the trade that Rob Blake made with the Buffalo Sabres at the trade deadline. The Kings gave up a third-round draft selection in order to bring Portillo into the fold and now that he has officially decided to forego his final two seasons of NCAA eligibility, he’ll join the organization, first on an amateur try out, at the AHL level.

Portillo is big. Portillo is athletic. He has a toolkit that you can’t teach at the professional level and that’s a heck of a starting point for a young goaltender. That’s where the Kings goaltending development method comes into play, one which has seen a variety of different goaltenders, young and old, progress from the AHL ranks to the NHL level. He’ll start off with the Reign and from there we’ll see how things go. The ATO is common practice at this time of the year and it would allow him to potentially get a professional game under his belt, as Laferriere did before him. Ontario has three regular-season games remaining and has locked in a playoff berth. The Reign will be either the fifth or sixth seed, depending on how those final games go, and will play its best-of-three series on the road regardless. The organization could, potentially, want to see Portillo in one of those three games, as it did last season with goaltender David Hrenak in a similar situation.

More from Portillo below, from his appearance on the All The Kings Men podcast.

Kings and Canucks, tonight at 7:30 PM in the home regular-season finale. It’s Fan Appreciation Night, with the Jerseys Off Our Backs promotion running after the game. A terrific opportunity to show the team’s support for those who have supported them all season long.

“I think the fan support has always been really outstanding here and in my time it’s felt like it’s grown with the team. There’s the very loyal follower that’s always around and I think we’re picking up some new people as well as the team improves. The energy in the building is really strong, you can feel it. I think anytime, and it doesn’t matter who it is, when your home crowd can provide a little bit of a boost when you’re tired, maybe you’ve blocked a shor, a big save, a goal, whatever it might be, it can drag a team along. Then you’ve got home ice advantage and I know we feel that.”