1/15 Preview – No Morning Skate + Third To First, Power-Play Progress, Williams Honored

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (20-11-8) @ Carolina Hurricanes (24-13-5)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Monday, January 15 @ 12:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: PNC Arena – Raleigh, NC
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: We’ve reached the final two days of the season’s longest roadtrip, which has not gone according to plan thus far, as the LA Kings visit Carolina to conclude their season series against the Hurricanes.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forward Kevin Fiala led the Kings with three assists when these teams met back in October, while forward Anze Kopitar scored twice in the shootout defeat. Kopitar has six points (3-3-6) from five games against Carolina over the last three seasons, while Adrian Kempe (4-1-5) and Blake Lizotte (2-3-5) each have five.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings did not hold a morning skate today, considering the afternoon puck drop.

For one of the first times this season, unclear which of the Kings’ netminders gets the start today in goal. With a back-to-back, both will likely start one game. Should the Kings turn back to Cam Talbot, he carries a record of 6-3-0 against the Hurricanes, with a .928 save percentage and a 2.17 goals-against average. Should David Rittich get the nod, he’s faced Carolina six times throughout his NHL career, with a record of 3-3-0, with a .906 save percentage and a 2.85 goals-against average.

For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up last time out against Detroit –

Tonight’s @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Clarke

Talbot
Rittich

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) January 13, 2024

Forward Arthur Kaliyev and defenseman Jordan Spence did not play last game against Detroit, but both should be options to check back into the lineup if the Kings opt to make any changes. Will have a better sense during warmups of today’s lineup.

HURRICANES VITALS: Carolina heads into today’s game on a strong run of form, with points in eight consecutive games, via a 7-0-1 record in that span.

With Pyotr Kochetkov injured, we’ll assume that Antti Raanta is the expected starter tonight for the hosts. Raanta has posted a lifetime record of 6-0-1 versus the Kings, with a .957 save percentage and a 1.42 goals-against average.

Per Walt Ruff of CarolinaHurricanes.com, here’s how the hosts lined up on Saturday against Pittsburgh –

No surprises for the #Canes in warmups ahead of their third meeting against Pittsburgh this season –

Svechnikov – Aho – Teravainen
Bunting – Kotkaniemi – Noesen
Martinook – Staal – Jarvis
Lemieux – Drury – Fast

Slavin – Burns
Skjei – Pesce
Orlov – Chatfield

Raanta pic.twitter.com/kpkEwHpFJW

— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 13, 2024

Included in that group is former Kings forward Brendan Lemieux, who signed a one-year contract with Carolina this offseason. Just three defensemen in NHL history – Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis and Gary Suter – have more goals against the Kings than Carolina’s Brent Burns.

Notes –
Third To First
I know I’m reaching here. I know it.

But over the first seven games of this skid, the Kings have generally played with the lead, before falling late in games. That’s the worst portion of their game coming at the end. Against Detroit on Saturday, the best period for the Kings was the third period. Now, it certainly needed to be, because they trailed 5-1 after the first 40 minutes, but the Kings upped their intensity in what Todd McLellan deemed to be a “character” period for the group.

“The third period was a little more about character and about grinding it out and finding ourselves,” McLellan said.

They needed to show up and they did.

Now, the question is – can they carry that level of play over into tonight’s game?

“Is that third period a precursor of things that come, we’ll see, we’ve got to play the game,” McLellan added. “The task gets tougher in my opinion now, back end of a trip, back-to-back games against two outstanding opponents that are really playing well, but maybe that’s what we need as well.”

In speaking with a few guys around the room, the Kings did feel they responded in the third, even if it was too little too late. Once they got it to 5-3, they actually had numerous high-danger chances to bring it to within a goal, but as has been the case in recent weeks, the finish just didn’t match the creation when they needed it.

How the Kings put themselves in that position, in Blake Lizotte’s eyes, was with urgency and intensity. They had that for the final 20 minutes in Michigan. Now, they’ve got to start the game with it in Raleigh tonight.

“I think we played with urgency,” Lizotte said. Obviously, being down four, you have to take a few chances and our power play did it’s job, but I think going forward, we have to start with that urgency and not wait until we kind of fall into that urgency. I think coming out with intensity will be key going forward.”

Against Carolina, the Kings know they’ll need that level from the start and they’ll need it for 60 minutes.

The third period in Detroit seems to have at the very least provided a little bit of confidence for the Kings heading into Carolina. Overturning a four-goal deficit is a pretty tall task. The Kings also could have rolled over and died in that game, though, and they didn’t. Frankly, if that had happened, it’d be substantially worse than it already is. They set out to play the right way and ultimately, there’s some belief that it’ll set them up for today.

“We just wanted to play a good period, play the right way, the way we should play and then we set ourselves up, hopefully, coming into this game against another good team,” forward Pierre-Luc Dubois added. “We’ve got to start off on the right foot.”

Power-Play Progress
Entering Detroit, the Kings had not scored three power-play goals in a game this season.

They have now done so, once.

Two goals from forward Quinton Byfield, and one from Dubois, got both units on the board with three goals in total on the PP.

For the top unit, Byfield scored twice off assists from Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala, with the latter starting things off twice with incisive plays. His play on the first Byfield goal was especially impactful, as Fiala’s willingness to go off script a bit, making a move to his backhand in the slot, drew the penalty killers out of position, setting up two passes that led to Byfield’s first goal.

“That type of execution often happens on the outside, it’s on the outside of the play down and in, but it can happen from the inside too and a lot of it depends on where the opponent’s stick is and Kevin took advantage of that,” McLellan said. “He stepped inside, went down and the puck came back up quickly. So, it’s a player, being Kevin, that read the moment, made the right decision and made a very good play. The other two also had to execute, it was a quick, one-touch tap and they both did their job, so it was well executed.”

The second goal from that unit brought the score to 5-3 and was again started by a pass from Fiala, who made an incisive read through the slot. Speaking with Byfield, he said that the Kings changed up a few things on both the breakouts and the in-zone sets, which has led to that unit feeling pretty confident. Six goals over their last four games in total, for a part of the game that had struggled even when the team was winning, is a good sign.

For the other unit, they saw two changes in terms of personnel, with Alex Laferriere and Brandt Clarke joining the unit.

“[Laferriere]’s work ethic and his commitment to the group has been strong all year, rarely do we leave the arena saying Laffy let us down or didn’t have a good night,” McLellan said. “He’s been very committed to his game and it’s a bit of a reward for him, but we also think we can take advantage of the right-handed shot.”

Laferriere made an instant impact, as he pulled a puck off the wall and fed Dubois in front for a goal early in the third period, the first goal for a player on that unit since December 10 in New York, though that came with Phillip Danault filling in on the top unit at the time. Really, the last goal for that unit came in Anaheim, from Arthur Kaliyev on November 24. It had been a minute. Last game though looked more like it.

Dubois felt the group took an attack-minded approach when they had their chances, which led to the three goals.

“I don’t know if we’ll go 3-for-3 every night, but if we just move that puck, if we attack when we get our chances, I think there’s a lot of ways you can approach a power play, but I think for us, it’s important that every time there’s opportunity to attack, we attack,” Dubois said. “We can’t be picky with the opportunities and I think that’s what we did [in Detroit] and that’s what allowed us to get the three goals.”

Honoring Stick
Little bit of a delayed puck drop coming today, but it’s for good reason.

The Carolina Hurricanes will honor forward Justin Williams tonight as the newest member of their Hall of Fame class.

I’m sure there was a bit of scheduling done with intent there.

Williams played a total of 449 regular-season games with Carolina and 427 with Los Angeles. He won his first Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes and his second and third with the Kings. A player known for his playoff performance, Williams earned the respect of both his teammates, and the opposition, for his play in those situations.

“I don’t think much phased him, I don’t think he felt much of the pressure and if he did, he thrived under it,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “He was very calm, cool and collected. It didn’t seem like anything phased him, he had a lot of confidence”

Even for Todd McLellan, on the other side of Williams in the postseason, noticed what an impact he had in those games.

“I think when an opponent can recognize and remember, it shows you the impact that he as an individual had on the organization, the team, the championships,” McLellan said. “You know how hard he played, night in and night out. We always thought that Joe Pavelski was our [Justin Williams] and the LA Kings had Justin Williams, they both drove their teams. Maybe not the most gifted players all the time, but they played hard, they played situations well, they had good hands and smarts to go with it. At the end of the day, all they wanted to do was win.”

Special to see Williams honored in advance of today’s game.

Matinee today, Insiders, noon puck drop in Los Angeles, as the Kings look to get things back on track here in Raleigh.