4/13 Preview – Regular-Season Finale! Lineup Notes, What’s To Gain, Playoff Scenarios

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (46-25-10) @ Anaheim Ducks (23-46-12)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, April 13 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Honda Center – Anaheim, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: It’s the final game of the 2022-23 regular season as the Kings visit the Anaheim Ducks to complete the Freeway Faceoff season series.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings have six players with three points from the first two games of the season against Anaheim, led by three goals from forward Viktor Arvidsson. Defenseman Drew Doughty, along with a quartet of forwards – Alex Iafallo, Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar and Blake Lizotte – each have a goal and two assists.

KINGS VITALS: Following a full-team practice yesterday, the Kings held an optional morning skate today in El Segundo, prior to the bus to Anaheim shortly after.

Kings goaltender Joonas Korpisalo is expected to get the nod between the pipes this evening for the Kings in Game 82. Korpisalo, who has never faced the Ducks in a Kings jersey, has posted a 2-1-1 record with a .907 save percentage and a 2.47 goals-against average.

No line rushes this morning, but a potential look at tonight’s lines below –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Grundstrom – Kupari – MacEwen

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Durzi – Walker

Koprisalo
Copley

Defenseman Alexander Edler skated with the full group for the second consecutive day in a non-contact red jersey. Forwards Alex Laferriere and Jaret Anderson-Dolan, along with Edler, were on late after morning skate today, signalling that they could be tonight’s scratched players. McLellan was happy to see Edler for the second-straight day, though.

“He means a lot to our team,” McLellan said. “His tenacity, his size and his experience back there means a lot to our group, so to see him out there, progressing, is a positive thing.”

DUCKS VITALS: The Ducks enter tonight’s action on a 12-game losing streak, dating back to March 17 against Columbus.

Anaheim goaltender John Gibson is tonight’s projected starter for the Ducks’ season finale. Gibson has faced the Kings 25 times throughout his career to date, posting a record of 14-10-0, with a .916 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average.

Per Derek Lee of the Sporting Tribune, here’s how the Ducks lined up during yesterday’s practice –

Ducks practice lines:

White: Henrique-Zegras-Terry
Blue: Jones-Strome-Vatrano
Gray: Nesterenko-Lundeström-Silfverberg
Orange: Grant-Groulx-Carrick-Leason

Black: Fowler-Benoit, Shattenkirk-Helleson, LaCombe-White, Beaulieu-Megna

Gibson-Dostál

No McTavish#FlyTogether

— Derek Lee (@Derek_Lee27) April 12, 2023

Anaheim forward Frank Vatrano leads the Ducks with three points (2-1-3) from the first two head-to-head matchups so far this season. Forward Mason McTavish will miss the remainder of the 2022-23 season due to injury. Defenseman Cam Fowler set an NHL record on Saturday with 38:54 in time-on-ice, 49 seconds more than the existing record.

Notes –
Lineup Notes
Last season, the Kings used Games 81 and 82 to give players what they needed to get ready for the playoffs.

The two games were played back-to-back on the road, with travel in between, and most veteran players rested one of the two games. For a player like Mikey Anderson, who was returning from injury, he played a lot of minutes on both nights to get repetitions and game action after being out of the lineup for six weeks. Different strokes for different folks, but players got what was needed.

Last season, those games also didn’t mean anything for the Kings in terms of their playoff standing. The Kings were locked into the third seed as soon as they clinched and everyone knew they’d face the Edmonton Oilers in Round 1. With that in mind, the Kings had the chance to rest those veterans. The back-to-back also meant less of a gap for players who rested, with no more than four days between games. If the Kings rested anyone tonight, it would mean that player would go at least a week without a game, from Monday versus Vancouver to Game 1, no sooner than Monday, April 17. Could be even longer.

Lots of different factors at play to suggest we won’t see the Kings sit half of their lineup against the Ducks.

“Last year, if I can recall correctly, I don’t think 81 and 82 had any type of impact on moving up moving down, home or road, anything like that, it was back-to-back on the road, so that made it a lot easier,” McLellan said. “Plus we had some extra bodies, we don’t have a lot of extra bodies right now, they’re trying to heal up. So, we have our lineup, we’ll pick the 20 players and we’ll play.”

With that in mind, expect to see close to a full lineup tonight for the Kings and at least off the start, don’t expect to see roles necessarily reduced or alterred.

When Anze Kopitar plays, he plays a certain role and that’s the role he’ll play next week as well. Same goes on down the list. Should the game become lopsided one way or the other, that’s when things could get shaken up, but until that happens, it’s about getting players what they need individually, which tonight means approaching the game as if it’s any other.

The Kings have had those rest days on Sunday and Tuesday and will likely have another between now and Game 1. Lots of time to get right, so expect the full group tonight.

What’s To Gain?
“There are going to be minds that wander ahead and anticipate what’s happening. We’ve got to play this game well, play it hard, play it smart, have structure in our game and be alert, but for as much as we mentioned that to the players, I think their minds are still going to be thinking ahead and it’s only human nature.”

Todd McLellan spoke this morning about that balance, with players naturally thinking ahead to Game 1 of the postseason, though Game 82 of the regular season is still to be played. As he said, it’s simply human nature. We’re all doing it away from the ice, so it’s hard to really expect it to be any different in the room.

That being said, the Kings still have 60 minutes of regular-season hockey to be played and they want to finish it on a high note. McLellan has said that momentum doesn’t really carry over from Game 82 to Game 1, with things sort of resetting at that point. With a regular lineup likely in play, however, it does mean the group has a chance to play together here tonight with what hopes to be positive habits being used. That can potentially carry over, which puts a little bit of added importance into the game.

“You don’t necessarily carry the momentum of the game but you can carry habits into your next match,” he said. “We’d like to have good habits, we’ve had really good habits for a long time now, the odd blip on the on the screen. I don’t think we should give anything back if we can control it.”

The Kings want to see progress tonight from what they did on Monday, carrying over the things they did well and working in on the things that they didn’t like.

Making Matchups
Tonight’s games will determine where the LA Kings will be seeded in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It won’t, necessarily, determine their Round 1 opponent, but it could. At the very least, it will provide us with a clearer picture of what the opening round of the postseason will look like.

First and foremost, the Kings control their destiny as it pertains to their seed, but not their opponent.

If the Kings collect at least one point tonight in Anaheim, they’ll be the third seed in the Pacific Division, no questions asked. Should the Kings lose in regulation tonight against the Ducks, their seeding would come down to the result of the Seattle / Vegas game. If the Kings lose in regulation and the Kraken win in any fashion, Seattle would tie the Kings in points and jump into the third seed, via the regulation wins tiebreaker. In that scenario, the Kings would become the first wild card team, which would mean a crossover into the Central Division.

Regarding opponent…….well, there are still four possibilities on the table.

Should the Kings be seeded third, they could face either Vegas or Edmonton.

The most likely matchup, as the odds would say, would be the Oilers. Most roads lead to Game 1 in Edmonton, however the following situation would see the Kings and Golden Knights square off in the 2/3 matchup.

– Kings Earn At Least One Point In Anaheim
– Oilers Defeat Sharks
– Kraken Defeat Golden Knights In Regulation

Requires three results, but it’s certainly realistic.

This would push Edmonton and Vegas into a tie for the division lead and Edmonton would take the cake based on the regulation wins tiebreaker, pitting the second-seeded Golden Knights against the third-seeded Kings.

Should the Kings move into a wild card position, which would happen only with a Kings regulation loss and a Kraken victory, their opponent might remain unknown until tomorrow evening. In that scenario, the Kings could face either the Colorado Avalanche or the Dallas Stars in Round 1.

Currently, the race for the Central Division title is separated by one point, with Colorado and Dallas both up for the top seed. Dallas has one game remaining – tonight versus St. Louis – while Colorado plays a back-to-back, hosting Winnipeg tonight and visiting Nashville tomorrow. The Avalanche control their own destiny and would lock up the top spot with two victories. The Stars would take that spot tonight by earning one more point than the Avalanche do in their respective matchups today. Many scenarios at play.

Lot to take in there, lot of games to watch and track before you book that hotel room for early next week. More to follow, certainly!

Kings and Ducks, tonight in Anaheim, and I’m sure we’ll see many of you there!