3/3 Preview – Afternoon Matinee + 11/7 Possible, Season-Long Homestand, New Look Line 1

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (30-19-10) vs. New Jersey Devils (30-26-4)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Sunday, March 3 @ 12:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: TNT – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings return home to begin a five-game homestand, their longest of the season, this afternoon against the New Jersey Devils.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forwards Quinton Byfield and Anze Kopitar scored when these teams met in New Jersey in February, with Byfield scoring the game-winning goal late in the third period. Kopitar has five points (3-2-5) from his last five games played against the Devils.

KINGS VITALS: Considering the afternoon puck drop, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of today’s game.

With no morning skate today, unclear who the Kings will start in net. Should they turn to Cam Talbot for his third consecutive start, he brings with him a record of 7-2-0 from 10 appearances versus New Jersey, with a .919 save percentage and a 2.25 goals-against average. Should the Kings return to David Rittich, who was in net for the 2-1 victory in Newark last month, he has a career record of 5-0-0 against the Devils, with a .922 save percentage and a 2.01 goals-against average.

The Kings used an 11F / 7D alignment last time out, shown below for reference –

Turcotte – Kopitar – Byfield
Moore – Danault – Fiala
Laferriere – Dubois – Anderson-Dolan
Lewis – Lizotte – (Kaliyev)

Moverare – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence
Clarke

Rittich
Talbot

Yesterday’s practice suggests that we could see the same look here today against the Devils, though as of yesterday’s media availability, Jim Hiller indicated it was something the Kings coaching staff planned to evaluate later in the day and had not formalized. Should the Kings opt for any additional line adjustments, forward Arthur Kaliyev is an option to check in up front.

DEVILS VITALS: New Jersey concludes a three-game California roadtrip here this afternoon against the Kings, following a victory over San Jose and a loss versus Anaheim.

No word yet on New Jersey’s starter this afternoon. Goaltender Nico Daws faced the Kings for the first time when these teams met earlier this season, making 27 saves on 29 shots in a 2-1 defeat. Akira Schmid has never faced LA throughout his professional career.

Per Amanda Stein of New Jersey’s team website, here’s how the Devils lined up last time out –

A couple of tweaks today at #NJDevils practice but we did see them towards the end of last game as well.

Noticeable here is that Smith is skating on a 4th pair.

Have to wonder if they go back to 12/6 tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ypFZFjUxmM

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) March 2, 2024

The Devils recently acquired Kurtis MacDermid from the Colorado Avalanche, with the former King expected to meet his new club in California. MacDermid joins forward Tyler Toffoli as former Kings on the New Jersey roster.

Notes –
Starting Off On The Right Foot
It’s no secret that the Kings have struggled at home this season.

The Kings are just 11-10-6 on home ice so far this season, 27th in points and tied for 27th in wins, both lowest amongst teams currently in a playoff position. They’re now staring down a season-long homestand of five games, beginning this afternoon against the Devils. At this point in the season, the Kings are simply looking for wins, but if they can get wins playing the way they did against the Canucks on Thursday, as opposed to say the way they beat the Blue Jackets during their last homestand, it’s a larger step in the right direction.

“I think that’s one of our big focuses, having a big game on the road, coming off an emotional win and sticking with that theme,” forward Trevor Lewis said. “Try to start the homestand off right and go from there.”

It’s certainly been discussed, but Thursday’s win over Vancouver seemed to set the blueprint for the way the Kings want to play.

Suffocating defensively and opportunistic offensively.

To be fair there’s probably not a city besides Vancouver that’s seen the Kings play at that level here this season. Prior to this trip, we had seen games with a ton of shot volume for the Kings, where they’ve found themselves with just a couple of goals, rarely converting at 5-on-5. Look no further than the most recent home game versus Anaheim.

At all strengths they had 89 shot attempts, the fourth-highest total of the season. Looking strictly at 5-on-5, the win over Anaheim ranked third in shot attempts in 5-on-5 situations. Just once this season did they have more scoring chances or more high-danger chances than they did in the Anaheim game. Yet, the Kings scored a pair of power-play goals only, none at even strength, with a shootout necessary to secure the second point. Don’t think anyone walked away with a great feeling, despite numbers that showed dominance, at least from a possession standpoint.

The win over Vancouver didn’t have nearly that volume, but look at the goals scored. A breakaway goal from Trevor Moore. A 2-on-1 into a breakaway goal from Brandt Clarke. A backdoor tap-in from Kevin Fiala on the power play. A pair of one timers, one low and one high, to round out a night when the Kings scored three goals in high-danger situations, despite a season low in shot attempts in all situations.

“You hope that the dam breaks eventually,” Jim Hiller said. “You talk about 50 shots on goal, all the way back against Anaheim, we could have had six or seven goals, that didn’t happen. As you know, there’s a right way to play the game, you continue to do it, it’s very difficult. Easy for us to talk about, easy for us to ask, but for the players to just continue to do it the right way over and over again and not get frustrated with the process sometimes, typically the most frustrating part of the process is when you don’t score. We went into the Vancouver game, we were tight defensively, probably as good as we’ve played defensively in a long time and then the dam broke for us a little bit. It was great to see the goals go in and see the guys be able to celebrate and be rewarded for the type of effort that they put in not, just that game, but some previous games as far as defensive effort.”

The Anaheim game was an interesting reflection on the way things have gone at home this season.

On paper, the Kings dominated that game and should have handily won. On the ice, though, it was a game that was much closer than it should have been and the Ducks certainly had ample opportunities to get the victory had things broken differently. Heading into this five-game homestand, the Kings know they need to find some success here on home ice. More games than not will be played at Crypto.com Arena down the stretch and the Kings have to find their share of points on home ice.

That starts this afternoon.

“Sometimes, you relax a little bit at home, you relax, you see family and then you’ve got to crank it back up again,” Lewis added. “It was good for us to get a practice day in and work on some of those details. We’ve just got to make sure we come out with the same energy and focus that we had on the road.”

New Look Top Unit
There was likely no larger beneficiary to the 11/7 alignment than forward Quinton Byfield.

With running one fewer forward, Byfield set a new career high with 22:49 in time on ice. He logged at least three and a half minutes with five separate players. At times, he seemed to go every other shift, once with Anze Kopitar’s line and one with Pierre-Luc Dubois’ line. Kopitar joked that when he was Byfield’s age, he could log those minutes pretty easily. So, nothing too crazy for a younger player.

“He’s young, he can do it. I was able to do it when I was 21 or 22. I probably still can, but not as easy as he can.”

While the 11/7 look put Byfield even more into the spotlight, increasing his minutes in general has been a focal point of Jim Hiller’s coming out of the All-Star break. It’s something he sat down with Byfield and discussed when taking over as Head Coach. Byfield is versatile, he works as hard as anyone and he can play in most situations. That makes him an ideal player when playing a forward short and he rewarded the Kings with a pair of assists and a lot of quality minutes.

While he moved around for sure, his most common linemate was still Kopitar, who he skated 12:21 with at 5-on-5. The regular third member of that line on Thursday was forward Alex Turcotte, who played just shy of nine minutes with Byfield.

Turcotte brings an undeniable work ethic with his game and was not shy to showcase it when playing higher in the lineup. For a Kings team that had lost three or four entering the day, playing without a few key players, you couldn’t get enough from players like Turcotte. He brought it in Vancouver, which allowed the Kings to balance things out elsewhere in the lineup.

“[He played] really well,” Kopitar said of Turcotte. “I thought he had a really strong period in Calgary already and then carried it into Vancouver. We’ve played four periods together, so it’s a little bit new for me, new for him, but he’s got to trust himself and keep doing what he’s doing.”

Prior to the game in Vancouver, Turcotte spoke about his excitement for a role he’s never played in the NHL. He also spoke about his comfort with Byfield, someone he played with a decent amount in the AHL, and someone he was comfortable with, even higher in the lineup.

“I played a lot of wing last year, with QB as my center, he made it easy on me, he’s such a good player,” Turcotte said. “It’s easy to make plays when you’ve got guys like that. I feel really comfortable.”

Add Kopitar into that mix, the team’s number-one center, and you’ve got a line you definitely would not have had on your bingo card back in Australia. On paper though, it’s a line that could help the Kings as they await eventual reinforcements. For Turcotte, it’s his best opportunity yet to cement himself as an NHL regular. He’s certainly not going anywhere right now, but when Adrian Kempe and Viktor Arvidsson eventually return, there will be competition for spots. More performances like what we’ve seen from Turcotte over the last four periods and it’ll be hard to take him out.

“We’ve liked him and if we’re going to bump him up and put him on the first line, then we’ve liked him,” Hiller said of Turcotte’s game. “He’s earned that and I think he did a really nice job in Vancouver too. The nice part about Turc is that he can play center, so that if Kopi gets caught up ice, he can play center, if it’s Q, he can play down low, so it really helps take the burden off Kopi. He plays so many hard minutes, penalty kill, power play, so those guys can be able to do a little bit of that work.”

A Sunday matinee in Los Angeles, with the first of five straight home games on the horizon! See you at at Crypto in a few hours time!