11/25 Preview – Potential Lineups + Moore’s Production, PPProgress, Road Stats

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (12-3-3) vs. Montreal Canadiens (9-9-2)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Saturday, November 25 @ 1:00 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 complete an afternoon back-to-back set, as they host the Montreal Canadiens today at Crypto.com Arena.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Anze Kopitar led the Kings last season with two goals from two games played against Montreal, while defenseman Mikey Anderson led the Kings with a +4 rating versus the Canadiens. Forward Phillip Danault will face his former team for the fifth time since he signed with the Kings as a free agent back in 2021.

KINGS VITALS: Considering both the back-to-back and the afternoon game, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of today’s game.

After Cam Talbot got the start yesterday in Anaheim, expect to see goaltender Pheonix Copley between the pipes this afternoon against Montreal. Copley has previously faced the Canadiens three times throughout his professional career, bringing with him a record of 2-0-0, with a .877 save percentage and a 3.41 goals-against average.

No indication of a potential lineup change for the Kings today, coming off of yesterday’s game against the Ducks, with that alignment embedded below for reference –

Today's @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence

Talbot
Copley

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) November 24, 2023

Likely not expecting to see forward Blake Lizotte in today’s lineup, in what would be his third consecutive game out of action. Lizotte continues to skate on his own and is approaching the original timeline for his injury, meaning we’ll check back in on his status this coming week. The Kings swapped forwards Carl Grundstrom and Arthur Kaliyev in yesterday’s lineup, the only change heading into yesterday’s game. Defenseman Jacob Moverare is the team’s lone healthy scratch right now.

CANADIENS VITALS: Montreal concludes a three-game California swing this evening against the Kings, after games in Anaheim (Wednesday) and San Jose (yesterday).

Goaltender Cayden Primeau got the start yesterday in San Jose, which points to either Jake Allen or Samuel Montembeault this afternoon. Montreal has used a three-goaltender approach throughout the season, not wanting to lose any of the three to a potential waiver claim, so we’ll assume it will be either Allen or Montembeault on the second half of the back-to-back.

Per Arpon Basu of The Athletic, here’s how the Canadiens lined up yesterday against the Sharks –

Canadiens warmup lines in San Jose

Newhook-Suzuki-Gallagher
Caufield-Dvorak-Slaf
Pearson-Monahan-Anderson
Pezzetta-Evans-Ylönen

Matheson-Barron
Guhle-Lindström
Struble-Kovacevic

Primeau
Montembeault

— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) November 24, 2023

Expect to see former Kings forward Tanner Pearson in the Montreal lineup this evening, after the veteran was traded to the Canadiens this past offseason. Montreal has six players with either five or six goals scored this season, but none higher than that total.

Notes –
Some More Of Moore
Another game, another multi-point day for Kings forward Trevor Moore, who collected two assists in the win yesterday over Anaheim.

Already in this young season, Moore has collected four multi-point games and enters today’s action just one point shy of a point-per-game pace, with 17 (9-8-17) in total. His nine goals are just one shy of Anze Kopitar’s team lead, while his 17 points are currently the fourth most on the team. Moore is already just one goal shy of last season’s total, coming in 18 games as opposed to last season’s 59.

When looking at what he’s creating, Moore is generating more individual shot attempts than he has in any season throughout his career, as well as more scoring chances. On a per/60 basis, only forward Adrian Kempe is outranking Moore in terms of shot attempts and shots on goal early on this season. It’s not just individual metrics too, as Moore’s on-ice numbers are at the highest rate of his career on a per/60 basis, across the board. Pretty simple stuff. When Trevor Moore is on the ice, offensive opportunities are coming for the LA Kings.

“Very high [level], the whole season he’s been there,” linemate Kevin Fiala said of Moore’s play. “Even last year, he was very good, just unfortunate with the injury. He’s a very fast player, a very smart player, very shifty. I feel like he’s done a lot of great things defensive and on the PK too, reading the other team. He’s been really good.”

Fiala is not the only person to mention Moore’s play last season, prior to an injury that impacted pretty much the entire second half of the season.

Moore’s first half of the season, which came during a period of flux for the Kings as a whole, was at a high level, continuing the momentum he built during the second half of the 2021-22 campaign. Todd McLellan has referenced the same thing on several occasions, feeling that Moore’s offensive breakout would have come for him a season ago, had he been healthy for a full 82 games.

“He’s getting the opportunity to do it and I have seen this type of play from him,” McLellan said. “It goes all the way back to college, when he was counted on in the top three or four players on a team, he has that skill and talent, we see it every day in practice and he’s playing with a lot of confidence. I do think that he’s probably going to push career highs in a lot of different areas, but I think he would have done that last year, had he not gotten hurt. We’re just seeing an extension of the first part of the season.”

Moore’s statistical breakout has come alongside his longtime linemate, Phillip Danault, with the two playing nearly every available minute together at 5-on-5.

Danault and Moore were paired together on New Year’s Eve during the 2021-22 campaign and have been together pretty much ever since. It’s a match that’s been excellent on the ice, with skillsets that effectively match each other as players. Danault is happy to see his teammate and his friend excelling the way that he has early in the season. Only benefits everyone to see him at that level.

“I’ve always believed he could do it, that’s for sure,” Danault added. “He’s confident, he’s having fun, he’s comfortable on the ice. We’ve got a good relationship as well off the ice and it’s awesome to see, he’s a very good friend.”

PPProgress
One of Moore’s points for the Kings came on a power-play unit that buried twice in yesterday’s win over Anaheim.

Really, it was two separate units, each scoring once, for the two total goals.

The Kings worked quite a bit on their power play during Thursday’s practice, with a focus both on zone entries and in-zone execution. Todd McLellan felt that a lot of what was worked on showed up in yesterday’s win, with a unit that looked cleaner than it has in recent memory.

“The concepts and some of the principles that we addressed, you could spot them in the game,” McLellan said after the win.

For starters, the Kings were more successful on their zone entries than we’ve seen in recent games.

That was a big part of what the Kings practiced, with different passing sequences and different approaches to how they Kings ultimately wanted to enter the offensive zone with possession. It hasn’t always been as clean as it was on Friday, with the Kings looking more comfortable in setting up earlier in power plays, leading to the production.

“Just showing some different things on the entries,” forward Quinton Byfield said, of seeing the practice work translate into game action. “Every team kills a little bit different, just being able to watch tape, see what their tendencies are and being able to work through that, we had a bunch of different entries [against Anaheim] and we were able to get the zone. Once we’re able to get the zone, we’re really good in there, with all those guys just snapping it around.”

Byfield is a key part of the zone entries, posted up towards the blue line, combining with forwards Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe on a couple of entries to establish the offensive zone with possession. As Byfield noted, the Kings believe they can create offensively once they get set up and on the season, they’re now clicking at 21.4 percent, which has moved towards the top third across the NHL in overall conversion. Early goings, but it’s not all that far off last season’s mark of just over 25 percent. More of the same from yesterday will go a long way towards accomplishing it.

Road Records
Lastly, Insiders, a look at a few numbers from NHL Public Relations, related to the Kings start to the season. The Kings are one win shy of the league’s all-time best start to the season away from home, as they won for the ninth straight time yesterday afternoon. The Kings will enter December unbeaten on the road, a staggering start to say the least.

A few metrics below, per the league’s PR team –

365:46 – Time leading; already more than both the 2006-07 Sabres (304:17) and 2009-10 Devils (210:35) had during their streaks.

52:13 – Time trailing; nearly a full game worth of time fewer than both the 2009-10 Devils (111:42) and 2006-07 Sabres (107:56) had during their streaks.

42 – Goals scored; the 2006-07 Sabres buried 44 and the 2009-10 Devils netted 29.

14 – Points by Trevor Moore during the streak following a 0-2—2 performance Friday. Daniel Briere (4-9—13 in 10 GP w/ BUF) and Zach Parise (6-7—13 in 9 GP w/ NJD) led their clubs during the other season-opening road win streaks of nine or more games.

14 – Unique goal scorers; Buffalo had 15 and New Jersey had 10.

9 – Regulation wins by Los Angeles during the streak; the 2006-07 Sabres and 2009-10 Devils each had three shootout wins during their runs. The Kings joined the 1983-84 Sabres (10 GP) as the second team in NHL history to win nine or more straight road games, all in regulation.

7 – Unique players with a game-winning goal for the Kings during their stretch following Quinton Byfield on Friday, compared to five for the 2006-07 Sabres and four for the 2009-10 Devils.

2 – Comeback wins by Los Angeles during their streak, compared to five for Buffalo and four for New Jersey.

2 – Instances of Todd McLellan-led teams posting a nine-game road win streak following a 9-0-0 stretch with San Jose in 2009-10. McLellan joined Lindy Ruff (w/ NJD and 2x w/ BUF) as the second head coach in NHL history to record a road win streak of at least nine games with multiple franchises.

It’s a home game today, though, as the Kings host Montreal. 1 PM puck here at Crypto.com Arena, to conclude the Thanksgiving back-to-back set!