Practice 4/22 – Fiala/Lizotte Updates, Talkin’ 3’s – Game & Line – plus Portillo signs ELC

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Scenes from practice 👀 pic.twitter.com/X6A9yVGvMT

— x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 22, 2023

Practice day in El Segundo, between Games 3 and 4, though it was a very lightly attended skate on the ice. Just two players who played in last night’s overtime victory were on the ice for practice, among the six total skaters who participated. In that group, however, was forward Kevin Fiala, who rejoined the full group for the first time this postseason.

Fiala has been out of action since he collected two points in a victory over the Seattle Kraken back on April 1 in Washington. Fiala initially suffered a lower-body injury in Colorado in early-March, on a leg-on-leg check from Avalanche forward Andrew Cogliano. He’s played in three games since that hit but hasn’t been with the group on the ice throughout the playoffs to date. He has been around off the ice, however, so from that side of things, it’s not necessarily a return, though it’s certainly a boost to see him in a practice capacity.

“I think it can, but [the media] only see him on the ice, we see him back in here every day, so his lift is felt daily in the trainers room, the weight room, the lunch room, just hanging with the guys,” McLellan said this morning. “He’s been around a lot more than what you see on the ice, but the simple fact that he has the equipment on too, it certainly helps.”

Fiala’s importance to the group is naturally undeniable, even though the team has responded well in his absence with a 2-1 series lead coming into today.

Still, the team knows what Fiala brings to the lineup and values his contributions, both as a player and as a teammate. When the time comes, as he gets to a place where he could potentially play, the Kings are excited about the prospect of having him back, even if they’re confident without him.

“He’s an All-Star, he’s a great player, he can make plays and scare other team’s defensemen, so I think he’s a huge part of our team, he has been all year,” forward Viktor Arvidsson said. “If he comes back, he would be a great addition to our lineup.”

Now, let’s pump the breaks on putting in Fiala’s Game 4 lineup spot in pen. He was in a non-contact jersey today and today’s practice featured a lot of small-ice games, with only six skaters and two goaltenders participating. Tomorrow would be a morning skate, not a full-go practice. McLellan indicated that if everything went well today for Fiala, he would take the pre-game skate tomorrow with the group, which would naturally be the next step. We’ll see where things go from there.

Regarding forward Blake Lizotte, there was no update today and he didn’t skate with the full group, so McLellan indicated that the team will have to see how he is in the morning before making any type of determination. More to follow on both players in the AM, as the team hits the ice for morning skate.

Notes –
Final Game 3 Thoughts
A fun one last night, with lots of takeaways, so we’ll look back one last time in between games on some of those storylines related to the game-winning goal.

From the horse’s mouth, Gabe Vilardi doesn’t know for sure if he touched the puck with a high stick, but he doesn’t think that he did. Though some on Twitter dot com might have you believe that a side angle replay shows conclusive evidence, the fact of the matter is, there simply was not conclusive evidence to overturn the call on the ice and that would be the same process if it was called the other way, initially, as well.

Okay, not really, because the play would have been halted immediately, but you get the gist.

“I don’t know, I mean, I watched it, I don’t think I did to be honest with you, things happen so fast,” Vilardi said this morning.

The Kingston man admitted he didn’t fully remember the play, as it didn’t directly lead to the goal. He also had no idea what was being reviewed until he was told by a linesman during the process that it was for a high stick, which goes to show how little certainty there was on contact or not.

“I mean to be honest with you, I don’t remember that part of the play, exactly leading up, the puck went up and my stick was up there obviously and it hit Ekholm on the back,” he explained. “I don’t know if I touched it, things happen fast. Like I said, go from there, the game’s over.”

After the play in question, things progressed to what ultimately became Trevor Moore’s game-winning goal.

For Moore, it was a crucial goal for both player and team, as he capitalized on a power play in overtime to give his team a 2-1 series advantage. So, just from that perspective, it couldn’t have been much better. From the perspective of where he did it, though, it was that much greater. Being from California, Moore has been to games like this as a fan and now he’s playing in them. He admitted he dreamt of a moment like that as a kid, in a Kings jersey, but the reality was “much better” than the dream could have predicted. He called it one of the best moments of his career, as he scored an important goal for his team.

“It’s up there for sure,” Moore said. “Just to be in the moment like that, we just want to win so bad, you don’t care who scores, but to be the one who put it in was pretty neat.”

He admitted it took him a while to get to sleep last night after that one, even if that isn’t atypical after a game, especially an overtime win. He had a lot of friends and family members reaching out, sending him the highlight that was plastered across social media, as a game-winning goal in overtime in the NHL tends to be.

“Yeah, I got a lot of texts. I’ve got a great support group, a lot of great friends who reached out, so that was awesome.”

Still, the California kid, scoring the game-winning goal for the California team……pretty sweet. The Kings will certainly take it from the Thousand Oaks native.

Game 3, Line 3
From Game 3 to Line 3.

A big change the Kings made heading into Game 3 came down to the makeup of the third line.

With Lizotte unavailable due to a lower-body injury, the Kings were forced into that change, with the man who has centered the third line for the bulk of the second half of the season no longer an option. With Kevin Fiala also out, the Kings had fewer options than they usually would and opted to move forward Gabe Vilardi back to his natural position in the middle, between regular winger Alex Iafallo and the promoted Carl Grundstrom, who bumped up in the lineup.

“We had good support, I feel like,” Iafallo said of the line. “We did well in the d-zone and we were just trying to battle, get a good forecheck and have good energy out there, try to get more pucks to the net.”

The members of the line were productive individually, from a statistical perspective.

Iafallo scored the game-opening goal late in the first period with a deflected effort from close range in between line changes, while Vilardi provided the primary assist on Moore’s game-winning goal, which came on the power play. Overall as a unit, a lot was asked of that group and Vilardi was relatively hard on his own play in the middle, as he went 2-of-11 in the dot, but an adjustment period is probably warranted.

“I think it was tough for us, just not starting with the puck, it felt like we were chasing a lot and that’s on me,” Vilardi said this morning. “I just felt we didn’t have the puck a lot in the first two periods, in the third we kind of got more going, but it’s tough when you don’t have the puck to start every shift. We weren’t bad, it’s playoff hockey, and everything’s tight out there. Stick the structure and make sure nothing happens defensively.”

McLellan felt that he and the coaching staff asked a lot of Vilardi in particular, a player who had played just three periods of hockey in the month of April leading into Game 2.

Vilardi was coming off an injury that saw him miss the final nine games of the regular season, as well as Game 1 in Edmonton. With just one practice under his belt, he stepped back into the lineup for Game 2 and after an adjustment period early, he settled into the game and scored a big goal in the second period. Vilardi, while a natural center, has spent the last two seasons playing on the wing, after he learned the position during an extended stretch in the AHL a season ago. Now, he’s back playing center as the team needs him to. McLellan believes he’s handled the task as well as he could be expected to.

“We asked a lot of Gabe, he’s played six periods of hockey in a short timeframe and we put him in the center-ice position,” McLellan detailed. “We asked a lot of him and he did a real good job. “Depending on Lizzo’s health and how everything works out, he may be asked to do that again, but he’s certainly better equipped right now, I believe, than he was two or three years ago. He’s got more experience, he’s stronger, he’s a lot more confident and he’s earned the right to be confident. That line did a good job last night.”

Naturally, a Game 4 lineup depends on the potential availability of Fiala and Lizotte, on which we won’t know more until the morning. Should neither be able to go, as McLellan indicated, we could see Vilardi at center continue. Last night’s performance wasn’t flawless, but it should give some confidence that he can continue to grow and contribute in that role as the series progresses. Having that type of third line will be crucial moving forward in this series.

Kings Ink Portillo
One last note, Insiders. The Kings have signed goaltender Erik Portillo to a two-year, entry-level contract that is effective immediately and runs through the end of the 2023-24 season. Portillo’s contract carries an AAV of $875,000 at the NHL level.

Portillo, who was acquired by the Kings at the trade deadline for a third-round draft pick, recently completed a three-year career at the University of Michigan and had been practicing with the AHL’s Ontario Reign on an amateur try out (ATO). Portillo was with Ontario as it was eliminated from the postseason in Colorado but did not get into a game, behind the established tandem of Cal Petersen and Matthew Villalta.

Portillo would technically be an option for the Kings down the stretch, but realistically he’ll enter into the conversation in the fall with regard to where he slots in for next season.

Tons of quotes from the last 24 hours to work into stories, so one more for you later this evening, as we set the stage for Game 4 at home!