Practice 10/23 – Defensemen Talk Revolving Parters + Kings Focus on “Net Play” Today

Back at it, Insiders!

The LA Kings hit the ice this morning at Toyota Sports Performance Center, following yesterday’s team off day, in preparation for tomorrow’s home game against Arizona.

In terms of today’s alignment, it did not appear as if there were any changes to the rushes that we saw before Saturday’s game against Boston. Those combinations are shown as follows –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Kaliyev
Fiala – Dubois – Laferriere
Grundstrom – Lizotte – Lewis
Anderson-Dolan

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence
Bjornfot

Copley / Talbot

Now, the Kings have shuffled things around at times over the first five games of the season, specifically between defensive pairs.

We’ve certainly seen the pairings moved around more in the early goings of this season than we have in seasons past. Todd McLellan has a lot of respect for, and puts value on, what Trent Yawney brings on the backend as he runs that group. McLellan gives Yawney the freedom and flexibility to situationally adjust as a game dictates and we’ve seen more of that so far this season.

“Yawns is working the backend and he feels comfortable using them as he sees fit,” McLellan said. “There’s different matchups, physicality and size, that’s needed at any given time. I think you’ll see that throughout the year.”

Let’s start at the top. The Mikey Anderson / Drew Doughty pairing has almost exclusively been a constant. Sure, there were situations – particularly when the Kings were trailing – that the Kings paired Doughty with another player, but for the most part, it was a pairing that rolled together in all situations at 5-on-5.

Looking specifically at last season’s totals, in games when both players were in the lineup, Doughty and Anderson played nearly 93 percent of their 5-on-5 minutes together. While it might not appear to be a stark contrast, that number has dipped closer to 82 percent so far this season. That’s close to three times the percentage of minutes apart this season compared to last.

Speaking with Anderson and Doughty today, they don’t try and change their games when paired with someone other than themselves, but admitted that there is a familiarity between the two of them that does make things more comfortable.

Anderson – Everyone knows their role or what’s expected to be done, so I don’t necessarily think it changes your role, but when you bounce around partners, guys are going to play different, so you may be thinking a little bit more about what they might do or their tendencies. Playing with Drew, he might throw some passes that maybe Spenny or Roy might not use, but there are little things you might learn and that kind of comes just over time, being around them and getting to watch them play. Sometimes it can change the flow a little bit but sometimes that’s good. It’s all situational.

Doughty – I don’t know if it changes too much. I mean, you’ve got to get used to playing with other guys, in any situation, but I just always kind of know where Mikey’s gonna be. He knows that I like to, instead of high flip a puck, he knows that I’m going to turn back and reverse it to him to break it out that way, whereas maybe playing with other guys, they don’t know me as well, like Engy has only been here for five games or whatever. That’s probably the only adjustment, is [Mikey] just knows basically what I’m going to do with the puck and I know what he’s going to do.

Doughty mentioned Englund, who is essentially learning everything as he goes.

His most common partner has actually been Matt Roy, with the duo playing just shy of 20 minutes together over the first five games. For Englund, in his first season with the organization, every partner is a new partner. Though he takes line rushes with Jordan Spence, he’s still getting to know Spence, so playing a shift with Doughty or Matt Roy isn’t any different really.

“You’ve just got to be alert and talking,” Englund said. “Sometimes when you play with a guy for awhile, you get into a rhythm, but the whole right side of our d-core can move the puck very well, so I can just give them the puck, try to move it to them as quickly as possible [regardless of who I’m with].”

At the end of the day, each of the six defensemen has moved around at times in their careers and each of them is capable of adapting.

Doughty plays as regularly as any defenseman in the NHL so at times he’s been used to play with a shuffle of partners. He would feature with Sean Walker, Sean Durzi or Matt Roy in the past, typically when the team is trailing, so he knows it happens at times. Earlier in his career, it was a different collection of names but the same responsibility.

It’s certainly come differently here this season for the Kings, and more regularly. Throughout McLellan’s tenure, we’ve typically seen more of their adjustments at the forward position than on the backend. It’s been the opposite so far this season, with few in-game personnel adjustments coming in the first five games. That will likely change at some point, but for now, the in-game alterations have come more with the defensemen than with the forwards.

Something to continue to watch as the group continues to gel together.

Net Play
Also of note today was a concerted focus on net play.

After each of the three losses this season, Todd McLellan has referenced the team’s net play as an area at fault.

Net play can mean a variety of things and it can be refer to both ends of the ice. Offensively, however, it hasn’t been as much of an issue – the Kings actually lead the NHL in high-danger goals for, which generally refers to the chances in and around the house. In fact, no team in the NHL has controlled a higher percentage of high-danger chances at 5-on-5 than the Kings through the first five games of the season.

Defensively, though, the Kings have conceded more than they’ve liked to in those areas, both looking at individual plays and as a team. That was a primary focus during practice today, both in video meetings and during the on-ice portion.

“The mindset comes from video, and some of the technique, and then the drills are hard to work on because you’re going up against your own teammates,” McLellan explained. “Pucks are coming in from the point, nobody wants to get hit with one, so it’s hard to recreate exactly what you’re going to face in the game. We tried to do some of that today because I think it’s an area we can improve on.”

After the game against Boston, to use the most recent example, McLellan referenced net play, he referenced “intensity in and around the paint” and he referenced detail in those areas.

Look at Morgan Geekie’s goal against the Kings in that game.

Sure, the goal itself came off a rebound, but the Bruins were quicker to react to pucks on goal earlier in the shift too, which led to extended possession in the offensive zone, eventually leading to Geekie’s rebound goal. The way Boston moved around in the offensive zone led to Kevin Fiala actually being the lowest man on the play. Not that he was responsible for the goal, but when McLellan says net play, it’s not just about the defensemen. It’s a five-man unit.

“When we talk about net play, everybody immediately thinks about the defenseman,” McLellan said. “There’s usually a little forward, sometimes two low forwards and a lot of teams have active D that roll down the backside, Gavy has scored that way this year already and net play can become all three forwards at any given time. As I use that terminology, and I did today with the team, I made it real clear it wasn’t just the [defensemen], it was everybody.”

This particular example is just the one that went in. McLellan felt there were moments throughout Saturday’s game, as well as the games against Colorado and Carolina, in which net play was an issue. We heard it at times a season ago as well, typically something we’d hear in games that were close together, and then not again for a while. That points to an area that can be cleaned up, because it has been in the past. It’s individual and team based, though, so everyone will have to be on board going forward.

“It’s both [individual and team situations],” McLellan said this morning. “Individually, the individual moments or situations are important. You have to have the skill and the will to get it done, but there’s also team play that goes around.”

Onto the next.

The Kings will host Arizona tomorrow evening in search of the first home victory of the season. A good opportunity to build off of a lot of the good things done over the first five games, while cleaning up some of the things they haven’t liked as much. Full preview to come in the morning!