10/28 Preview – No Morning Skate Today + Scoring “At Will”, Better Start Needed Tonight

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (4-2-1) vs. Vegas Golden Knights (7-0-1)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Friday, October 28 @ 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: The Kings conclude a back-to-back set of games tonight as they host the Vegas Golden Knights at Crypto.com Arena.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Among skaters expected to play tonight, forward Phillip Danault led the Kings with four points (1-3-4) last season against Vegas, while forward Kevin Fiala had three goals from four games, courtesy of a hat trick in Nevada in January 2023. Forward Anze Kopitar had three points last season versus the Golden Knights, giving him 32 (12-20-32) in his career. No player in NHL history has more points against Vegas than Kopitar.

KINGS VITALS: Considering the back-to-back set, the Kings did not hold a morning skate today upon their return to Los Angeles. For reference, here’s how the team aligned last night in Arizona –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence

Copley
Talbot

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 28, 2023

Unclear at this time exactly who will get the nod between the pipes for the Kings. The original expectation was for Cam Talbot to play today, after Pheonix Copley got the start last night in Arizona. Less than 10 minutes into the game, however, Talbot entered in relief and logged the final 51+ minutes of the 5-4 win. A decision that will have to wait until closer to puck drop to know for sure.

Todd McLellan indicated the other day that the Kings have found a lineup that they believe gives them the best chance to win right now. It’s unclear if a back-to-back changes that approach at all, but should they look to make any sort of changes, forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan and defenseman Tobias Bjornfot are available to check into the lineup.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS VITALS: Vegas is also playing a back-to-back tonight, coming off of their first defeat of the season, an overtime loss against the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday evening on home ice.

Goaltender Adin Hill got the start yesterday for the Golden Knights, which points to goaltender Logan Thompson getting the nod tonight in Los Angeles. Thompson carried with him a 2-2-0 record against the Kings in his NHL career, with a .911 save percentage and a 2.74 goals-against average.

Per Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, here’s how the Golden Knights aligned yesterday versus the Blackhawks –

Knights' line rushes before playing the Blackhawks:

Barbashev-Eichel-Marchessault
Cotter-Stephenson-Stone
Dorofeyev-Karlsson-Amadio
Carrier-Howden-Kolesar

Martinez-Pietrangelo
McNabb-Theodore
Hague-Korczak

Hill

— Ben Gotz (@BenSGotz) October 27, 2023

A slightly smaller than usual contingent of former Kings skated for the Golden Knights yesterday, with forward Michael Amadio joined by defenseman Alec Martinez and Brayden McNabb. Forward Chandler Stephenson led Vegas with five points against the Kings last season and leads all Vegas players with seven goals against LA over the last two seasons.

Offensive Aptitude
“We know we can score. The LA Kings organization, since I’ve been here, we’ve always been more of a defensive team but this year, it just feels like we can score at will.”

That was defenseman Drew Doughty, speaking after a two-goal night personally in Arizona yesterday evening. It was part of yet another five-plus goal performance from the Kings early this season.

The Kings have now scored five-or-more goals in two consecutive games and five times in their first seven games played this season. An average of 4.57 goals-per-game is good for the top mark in the NHL entering tonight’s action. No team has more goals at 5-on-5 than the Kings and, despite a slow-ish start, the Kings have six power-play goals from seven games and are clicking at over 20 percent in the early goings. Additionally, despite what have been consistently slow starts, just two teams have more first-period goals this season than the Kings do. In just about every way, the offensive totals are thriving.

Historically speaking, just twice in franchise history have the Kings accomplished that, with the 2023-24 squad joining the Wayne Gretzky-led 1988-89 squad in that department. Per LA Kings PR, it’s just the third time in the last 30 years that any team in the NHL has accomplished that feat, joining the 2012-13 Tampa Bay Lightning and the 1993-94 Toronto Maple Leafs.

It’s been a heck of an effort thus far and it’s come from all throughout the lineup. No line has fewer than five goals this season and no line has greater than eight. The lowest-scoring forward line has actually been the trio of Kevin Fiala, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Alex Laferriere and Fiala is not only riding a six-game scoring streak, but he’s also team’s leading scorer overall with ten points (1-9-10). The offense is coming with balance and everyone is chipping in.

“We talked about it throughout training camp, that we had three, four lines that can score on any given night, we’re spreading it around,” forward Anze Kopitar said.

In last night’s win over Arizona, it wasn’t just the forwards that got in on the action either. Three of the team’s five goals this season have come from the blueline, as Drew Doughty scored twice and Mikey Anderson buried his first goal of the season. Sneakily, Anderson has six points (1-5-6) from seven games played this season, the most among all Kings defensemen. In the early goings this season, only three teams around the league have gotten more goals from their defensemen than the Kings.

Now, at some point, the Kings won’t be able to simply outscore teams and they do know that. They surrendered just the one goal in Winnipeg on their first trip of the season, but it’s been three-or-more in the other six games thus far. Eventually, they’ll need those 2-1, 3-2 wins to come, but for now, despite some defensive miscues, the Kings will take the offense they’re getting.

“I don’t think that we’re going to score five or six goals every night, I don’t, and against Boston, we saw that we couldn’t or didn’t,” Todd McLellan said. “There are going to have to be 2-1 and 1-0 wins at some point, but we’re still trying to figure our game out. We’ll take the offense to support the mistakes we’re making and try to put wins together.”

It’s certainly taken some time for the overall game, the defensive game specifically, to come around to where the Kings know it can be. Thankfully, one of the best offensive starts to a season in league history is keeping the team right where they need to be, with a 4-2-1 record heading into tonight’s game.

Starting On Time
For all of the offensive prowess, however, the starts to games continue to be an issue for the Kings.

Despite a pair of victories over Arizona this week, the Kings were not happy with how they started either game, with the Coyotes scoring on their first shot of the game in consecutive outings. Last night, it came less than 60 seconds into the game, with a 2-on-1 off a missed pinch putting the Kings behind the 8-ball on the first shift of the night.

Todd McLellan put it pretty bluntly after the game –

“We can’t keep going this route. We’ve got to we’ve got to start games better. Something’s got to change.”

McLellan shared after the game that it was the players, not the coaches, that stood up in the room and acknowledged that the start to Friday’s game was not good enough. McLellan said there wasn’t anything that had to come from him, it was the guys in the room who stepped up and said what needed to be said, but more importantly, did what needed to be done off the opening puck drop in the second period.

Against Arizona, the Kings were able to work their way out of their starts, but three-goal comebacks wont work every night. Tonight, the Kings have Vegas in town and against the defending cup champions, the Kings will have to have it together, right off the opening puck drop.

“We just came our really flat early, it’s not what we planned to do,” Doughty said. “We need to get back to fixing that defensive side of the puck. Against teams like Vegas and Toronto coming up, we can’t be playing like that, we’ll lose.”

When asked what to look for early, to know if the Kings are on it from the start, McLellan pointed to battles in various areas as tell-tale signs of an engaged start to the game.

Over the last few seasons, the Kings have been among the NHL’s best in the faceoff dot, riding the strength of the existing trio down the middle of Kopitar, Danault and Lizotte. While you’ll never win every draw, faceoffs are a way to engage in a battle early and McLellan is looking to areas like that as a sign of his team being engaged early.

“I always talk about faceoffs, it’s the first opportunity to compete,” McLellan said. “We’re not always going to win the draw, but if you don’t win the draw, are you in position to react to what’s going to happen. Races to pucks, volume shooting early, Arizona did that [on Tuesday] and suddenly you’re on your heels.”

Kings and Golden Knights in a showdown at the top of the Pacific Division. 7:30 puck drop, see you then!