Playoff Practice! Today’s Alignment + Injury Updates, Matchup Thoughts, Day 1 Differences

Playoff Practice!

A long skate for the Kings today, with the group getting on the ice just before 11 AM and formal practice running for close to an hour. Probably the last chance for the Kings to hold a practice like that until the lengthy gap between Games 5 and 6, should the series extend that long one way or the other. Today’s extended cut gave the coaching staff the opportunity to work on all of the areas of their game that they’d like to, in advance of Round 1.

With that in mind, here’s how the Kings aligned today. Note that bottom-six lines and defensive pairings were scrambled a bit, with an odd number of bodies in action. The Kings had 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders on the ice today. The top six is self-explanatory at this time, while the bottom six and the backend have decisions to be made, both as it pertains to injury and personnel.

Gray
Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
White
Iafallo – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Grundstrom – Kupari – MacEwen
Anderson-Dolan – Laferriere
Defensemen
Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Edler – Durzi – Walker
Goaltenders
Copley / Korpisalo

No house secrets were shared with regard to the goaltending, nor was anything disclosed with regard to a potential Game 1 lineup. As detailed in the section below, not much of an update at this time regarding the status of forwards Fiala and Vilardi and how the team looks on Monday night depends in part on the availability of those two players.

Notes –
The Day 1 Landscape
Let’s get those updates out of the way, shall we?

Defenseman Alex Edler skated with the group today in a regular jersey for the first time, after a few practices in a non-contact red jersey. Edler hasn’t played since April 2 in Vancouver, when he left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury. Forwards Gabe Vilardi and Kevin Fiala did not practice with the group today, though reports had Vilardi skating on his own before practice. Two days to see how those situations shake out with regards to Game 1, but a player missing Game 1 does not mean that player is unavailable for the series. No MLB-style roster submissions required here, so this will continue to be a developing situation…..until it isn’t.

“No update” regarding Fiala and Vilardi, per Todd McLellan, though he said there is still a chance that either or both players could travel with the team to Edmonton tomorrow.

“When they’re ready, they’ll play.”

McLellan added that the availability of both players does not necessarily factor into the team’s preparation for the series, because they know what they have either way and are prepared for either scenario. The Kings have played with both in the lineup and recently, they’ve lived life without them and others. This won’t be a situation where the Kings will be caught off guard, as they perhaps were last season with regards to Viktor Arvidsson.

While there is, naturally, wonder and concern involved, the Kings believe they are ready to go, regardless of the status of those two forwards.

“The health part of it is always a concern for any team at this at this point of the season, but we have enough players to put a team on the ice and get after it,” McLellan said today. “If we’re not ready now, shame on us. We’ve worked on everything we possibly could to prepare for this time of the season, now we’ve got to apply it. That’s where we’re at.”

Regarding Edler, McLellan pointed to the experience that he brings, especially at this time of the year, which gives him confidence that he could slot Edler into the lineup without concern.

“He’s very fit, he’s got a ton of experience and he can go in and play.”

No guarantee that Edler does check in for Game 1, but he clearly feels like a possibility. Edler has 89 career playoff games to his name, including seven last season. That’s more than Kopitar (86), Doughty (84) or Viktor Arvidsson (61), the team’s three next most experienced players in the league’s second season. At the same time, the Seans – Durzi and Walker – have paired together effectively in just shy of 60 minutes together this season.

Lineup decisions to be made as things progress here over the next 48 hours, but in Edler’s case, he’s certainly trending toward being available should the Kings call his number at any point in the series.

Haven’t We Seen You Before?
A familiar foe, but under different circumstances.

With the results on Thursday evening coming in after media availability in Anaheim, this morning’s practice was the first opportunity to hear from players and coaches on the first-round matchup versus the Oilers.

The two teams played each other four times during the 2021-22 regular season. Seven more times in the postseason. Four games in the 2022-23 regular season and as many as seven times here in Round 1, Part 2.

“We’re playing Edmonton again, we’ve only played them I think 15 times in the last calendar year, and now four to seven more,” Todd McLellan said this morning. “There aren’t a lot of surprises between the two teams, there’s only so much you can do in those games, there will just be changes and tweaks and that kind of stuff.”

Those matchups have been relatively even from a record standpoint. The Kings have posted a mark of 3-4-1 in the regular season against the Oilers and 3-4 in the postseason. While Edmonton has had the slight edge in the win-loss column, there hasn’t been a blowout either way amongst the eight in the regular-season, with an even goal differential, plus five of the seven in last season’s series were tightly contested.

With that all being said, the Kings and Oilers aren’t exactly the same two teams that met in Round 1 last year. They’re not the same teams that squared off in Edmonton back in November, or in Los Angeles in January. They’re not even necessarily the same teams that met last month in Alberta. It’ll be the same, yet different when Game 1 rolls around.

“It’s going to be a challenging series, for sure,” forward Phillip Danault said this morning. “They got better as a team, we also got better, we’ve got more experience than we did last year, they got better defensively, it will feel like a whole new series. At the same time, we do kind of know each other, but it will be different for sure.”

In terms of personnel, the Kings were without Viktor Arvidsson and Drew Doughty when they took on Edmonton a season ago. They’ve naturally added Kevin Fiala, who may or may not factor in, while they’ve also seen internal growth from guys who made their playoff debuts a season ago. The Oilers saw a big transformation around the trade deadline, with the addition of veteran defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who has helped to solidify things defensively.

Long story short, if you ask Doughty, last year’s series was last year’s series and this year’s series starts anew.

“Honestly, I don’t think last year’s series has a lot to do with this year’s series,” Doughty said this morning. “They’re better defensively and they obviously still have that high-powered offense. We’re better offensively this year than we were last year and we’ve really picked up our defensive game in the [second half] of the season. It’s a different series, last year really means nothing.”

Where things could possibily carry over pertains to the battle-level between the two clubs, which stems from familiarity.

A seven-game series can turn teams from opponents to rivals. Two playoff series in as many seasons, with eight regular-season contests sprinkled in, can only further that rivalry. That’s where the Kings and Oilers are trending, in Anze Kopitar’s mind.

“We’ve had some chippy games, it’s going to happen over the course of the year,” he said. “I think to get that friction, you’ve got to go through a couple of playoff series. That’s the case between us and the Oilers and I’m sure the series is going to be physical, just like any other one. We’ve got to prepare and go on the ice and get it done.”

Lots of commentary surely to follow, but hey, gotta start somewhere. A new but old, different but the same, first-round matchup.

Day 1 Differences
We all want the updates on those who are currently injured, and that is understandable and obvious.

What the Kings do have, however, compared to last season is an available Drew Doughty and an available Viktor Arvidsson. Doughty, we already knew, was lost for the season but it was on this day a year ago, that pre-playoffs practice, that Viktor Arvidsson pulled up injured and left the skate early. Hard to believe it. McLellan weighed in on the importance of having both guys available and healthy heading into the series.

McLellan on Doughty
Well, he plays 27 minutes a night in a 60 minute game, so that value right there is irreplacable. The fact that he’s been through these moments before, the ups and downs in the playoffs, extremely intense moments, he’s important and he leads in his own way, we didn’t have that type of leadership last year. He’s going to bring that to the table this year and we’re excited about having him back.

Mclellan on Arvidsson
It’s hard to imagine that this practice, last year at this time, we lost him. Talk about bad luck for him and for us, we missed him in that series. He did everything he possibly could to try to overcome his injury, to come back during the playoffs, but when it was evident that it wasn’t going to happen, he did what he had to do and then a full summer of rehab. He missed training camp, or a lot of it, and then came back to play. I think his play has just elevated as the year’s gone on, he’s continually gotten better. A rusty start, which you anticipate, but a real strong strong finish. He, like Drew, we’re lucky to have him coming back.

While the Kings – and those reading – are rightfully worried about the status of guys like Fiala and Vilardi, there can be some comfort taken that both Doughty and Arvidsson are healthy and ready to go for Game 1 on Monday.

More to follow, Insiders! Expect to see the Ontario Reign’s playoff schedule here tomorrow morning, plus full coverage from practice and a feature leading into Game 1, as a more experienced group of Kings prepare for another go-around at the postseason.