1/18 Preview – Rittich, Spence In + Notes on Decision Not To Skate, Big Save Dave, Leadership

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (21-12-8) vs. Nashville Predators (24-19-1)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, January 18 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ESPN+ / Hulu – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The LA Kings are back on home ice as they begin a series of four straight games at Crypto.com Arena.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Defenseman Matt Roy scored twice from three games against Nashville a season ago, leading all Kings skaters. In total, the Kings got four goals from their defensemen versus the Predators last season, with Mikey Anderson also finding the back of the net. Forward Samuel Fagemo played four games with Nashville earlier this season, before he was re-claimed off waivers by the Kings.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings had an off day yesterday, coming out of the six-game trip, and opted for a highly optional morning skate today.

Goaltender David Rittich was off first this morning and he will be tonight’s starter in net against Nashville. Rittich, a former member of the Predators, has a lifetime record of 2-0-1 versus Nashville, with a .887 save percentage and a 3.38 goals-against average.

Without the morning skate, hard to say what tonight’s lineup will be. Last game is embedded below for reference –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Clarke

Talbot
Rittich

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) January 17, 2024

Forward Samuel Fagemo and defenseman Brandt Clarke were the only two skaters that took morning skate today. Project them as the team’s scratches, but as always, we wait and see. Jordan Spence will check back tonight, in after swapping with Clarke in Dallas, so that rotation figures to continue.

As noted earlier today in General Manager Rob Blake’s morning availability, the Kings are expecting to be without forward Blake Lizotte through the NHL All-Star break, which puts him out of action through the end of the month. Lizotte suffered a lower-body injury in Carolina on Monday.

PREDATORS VITALS: Nashville has won five of its last eight games and enters the day in possession of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Assuming the Predators will turn back to their usual starting goaltender, Juuse Saros, for tonight’s game in Los Angeles. Saros has a lifetime record of 4-1-1 versus the Kings, with a .918 save percentage and a 2.93 goals-against average.

Per Zach Gilchriest of NashvillePredators.com, here’s how the visitors aligned last time out in Vegas –

#Preds lines vs. VGK:

Forsberg – O'Reilly – Nyquist
Trenin – Sissons – Gurianov
Smith – Novak – Evangelista
Pärssinen – McCarron – Tomasino

Josi – Fabbro
McDonagh – Schenn
Lauzon – Carrier

Saros
Lankinen

— Zach Gilchriest (@ZachGilchriest) January 15, 2024

Forward Filip Forsberg leads the Predators in goals (22) and points (48) on the season, coming into tonight’s action at over a point-per-game on the season. Forsberg’s 22 goals are tied for 13th in the NHL this season. Defenseman Roman Josi leads the Predators with 29 assists, seventh most in the league amongst defensemen.

Quick Hitters
– In a pretty rare move, the Kings opted not to hold a morning skate here today in El Segundo.

Historically speaking, on days following a day off, the Kings will hold a full-team morning skate the next day. Not today, with only skaters Brandt Clarke and Samuel Fagemo, as well as goaltenders David Rittich and Cam Talbot, taking the ice for the formal portion of the skate. As noted earlier, Viktor Arvidsson skated alone, before the others got on the ice.

Coming off the long trip, Todd McLellan felt the Kings are in need of some “pop and energy” in their game, so they opted for the group not to skate. Typically, off a long trip, teams get two days off on the backend. One to recover, one to get back on the ice. The Kings only got the one and with the flight home delayed, arrival was quite late. Yesterday was more a recovery day than a day off. With all that in mind, the focus today was on energy, hence not skating.

“This is almost like game seven of the roadtrip, with the time that we got back,” McLellan said. “Our coaching staff just thinks that we’re lacking some pop and some energy in our game right now, some of it because of travel and that type of stuff and some of it probably mental and it’s wearing down on us. So we conserved energy for tonight, we’ll try this and see if we get some pop back in our game.”

– The Kings will turn back to the man nicknamed Big Save Dave for tonight’s game.

Todd McLellan shared this morning that the Kings considered running Rittich back-to-back in Dallas, coming off a very strong performance in Carolina on Monday, though it was ultimately decided against. Rittich is 3-0-1 in four starts since he was recalled by the Kings following the season-ending injury to Pheonix Copley.

“He’s going to start tonight, he will play against his old team,” McLellan said. “We did consider playing him back-to-back in Dallas, that trip wasn’t easy, it was a late afternoon game, but it was an intense game for him. So, he’s going to get his start here. Cam’s not an All-Star goaltender by accident, he has the game and he’s proven it, so we expect both of them to play. Rittich will get his start tonight and expect the same type of game as he gave us in Carolina.”

Talbot has played a pretty intense workload so far this season. He’s made 29 starts and 30 appearances in total through the team’s first 41 games. That’s 58-start, 60-appearance pace, which is probably a bit high for what the Kings would ideally like. Rittich has played well, he’ll get his look tonight and we’ll see where things go from there. The Kings believe in the Czechia native and will look to him for quality starts, beginning tonight.

– McLellan also spoke about taking a balanced approach within the room when confronting the stretch of games the Kings are currently on.

1-5-4 is 1-5-4.

That doesn’t mean a ranting and raving Head Coach every day, though.

At the end of the day, the team’s leadership starts with its head coach and McLellan understands that responsibility. He’s looking to not only prepare the group for games to come but also to help steer the group through this difficult stretch. It’s not just McLellan – the rest of the staff and the leadership group is also so important – but he’s a big part in what needs to be said.

“They are looking for guidance and leadership and that starts with me and when I stand up there, I have to make sure that they’re well prepared, but I also have to instill confidence in them and I have to hold them accountable,” McLellan said.”So there’s a lot of juggling that goes on. My voice is important, but there’s moments where I have to step back and maybe the assistant coaches voices come through, but also some of the leaders and quite frankly, some of the followers have to speak up a little bit and you can speak through your actions or using your words. I don’t think that’s been a major problem with our group. I think we’ve had the proper reaction from players and staff, we’ve just got to put it all together.”

McLellan has noted the leadership group several times on this run, usually pointing to players like Kopitar, Doughty, Danault and Lewis. Today, he also highlighted two younger leaders – Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe – as individuals who have emerged as leaders this season as well, as well as a newcomer to the group in Cam Talbot, who brought with him a wealth of experience from his time in the league. It takes more than just one or two guys, especially right now, to get through this. Another chance to show that on the ice tonight.

Shorter than usual preview tonight, with the Blake availability today. Will have plenty more tomorrow as the team is scheduled to practice in full, so expecting to hear from the guys in the room between postgame tonight and practice tomorrow.