Day 4 Practice Notes – Kaliyev “out indefinitely” w/ broken clavicle + Kings change schedule, begin PK work

Day 4 is in the books. It was a day of updates, Insiders, and not necessarily all good ones.

As noted this morning, the Kings opted to change up their approach for practice today. The team frontloaded, if you will, using the bulk of the NHL group in Group A, which skated from 10 AM to just after 11. Following Group A, Groups B and C squared off in the fourth scrimmage of camp, the first to not feature the NHL veterans. It was a spirited skate, with guys who are trying to make an impact, trying to make the NHL roster. Therefore, not necessarily the same groups, but perhaps just as important. There are always a couple of guys from that group who standout and make an impression who put themselves more into the roster picture than you might have expected.

In talking with Hiller, the reasoning for the change came down to understanding how intensive the practices were over the last three days and a desire to start working in more of the team’s desired structure and systems, with a lot of work on the 1-2-2 neutral zone during today’s skate. The Kings also dedicated a portion of practice to the penalty kill, with more on that below.

“They’ve worked hard for three days here, a lot of ice time, hard practices, hard games, we felt they’d want to slow it down a little bit and maybe introducing some of the different structure that we’re talking about,” Hiller said after today’s skate. Slow the pace down and build more tactical and technical.”

Regarding the group that was on the ice, the team was once again without forward Arthur Kaliyev.

Injury update, per Jim Hiller.@LAKings forward Arthur Kaliyev suffered a fractured clavicle on Day 2 of camp and will be out indefinitely.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) September 22, 2024

As noted in the above tweet, Kaliyev fractured his clavicle during Day 2 of training camp and is out of action indefinitely. Certainly not expecting him back anytime soon. Kaliyev took a hit during Day 2 of camp on Friday and has not returned since. It’s a tough break, man. Tough break. Kaliyev seemed optimistic about a fresh start, as did Hiller. With this development early in camp, he’ll be out of the lineup here for an extended stretch, limiting his chance early of making the most of that fresh start. Will update when appropriate. Hoping for the best in Kaliyev’s recovery process.

As far as those who were on the ice for today’s practice, we saw the Kings work on special teams for the first time this season, taking 20 minutes or so at the end of practice to focus on the penalty kill.

Good intel from Jesse on today's PK work ⬇️

Kings see all 8 of those forwards as "legitimate NHL penalty killers".

Jim Hiller shared that the Kings are looking to be "more aggressive" on the PK this season. LAK working on special teams earlier in camp too than in past years. https://t.co/4FPTb6opiS

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) September 22, 2024

“Usually you’re running six penalty-kill forwards, and four [defensemen], so we know, based on depth and in different circumstances, injuries, we wanted to just get everybody that we thought would be involved in that a look and they did a good job,” Hiller said. “We don’t know exactly what’ll shake out, who they will be, in what order, but we thought all those guys who had a chance to go are legitimate NHL penalty killers. We’re trying to be a little bit more aggressive, you probably saw that at different times, so we just worked on some of that.”

For reference from that tweet, the pairs used were Kopitar/Kempe, Danault/Moore, Byfield/Foegele and Thomas/Lewis. Seven of the team’s expected top-eight defensemen worked in as well, everyone minus Jordan Spence.

More likely than not, the Kings would like to get that group down to six on a game-to-game basis, but as Hiller said, they see all eight as quality PK’ers. We all know it’s unlikely that we will see everyone play 82 games, so having options is good. Competition is good too, meaning players who aren’t delivering in those situations can be replaced because there are additional options internally, already in the lineup.

The interesting thing to look for now is deployment. Part of what makes Anze Koptiar and Phillip Danault such effective players is their all-around, 200-foot game. It’s their ability to contribute effectively in every situation that separates them from most. For two perennial Selke Trophy candidates, that includes the penalty kill. They’re good at it. There’s also minutes to be managed, though, to keep players like Kopitar in particular fresh over 82 games. He’s the team’s number-one center and will be counted upon to produce and lead the team at both ends of the ice. PK minutes can be hard minutes, so spreading them out could be one way the Kings look to spread the minutes out over the course of a long season.

Overall, the penalty kill was a huge win for the Kings during the 2023-24 regular season, finishing second in the league at 84.6 percent. The postseason was obviously a completely different story. The Kings saw Edmonton dominate in special-teams situations and as Hiller said today, it’s the last game of the season that provides the ultimate judgement.

“Over 82 games, to finish where we did, I mean, that’s a very successful season on the penalty kill, so we like that, but we know ultimately we get judged by whether we win our last game or not,” Hiller said. “So, it’s been a couple years where we haven’t been able to get it done versus Edmonton specifically, so we have to make some adjustments that would carry into the regular season and hopefully into the playoffs as well.”

The other interesting part of today’s focal points is how early in training camp the Kings are actually working on special teams.

It’s been clear to me since Jim Hiller took over that special teams is a big priority for him. He was the power-play guy as an assistant, but is now responsible for the entirety of it. Working it in early isn’t all that surprising, it’s just not something we’ve seen this early in camp over past seasons. There seems to be value in it, though, from the perspective of the players.

“You can adjust some of the smaller details and pay attention more to that, so it’s really important right now to do it,” defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov added today. “As soon as the first game [happens] will come more video and just working on those details.”

As for tomorrow, we’ll see the penalty kill and the rest of the things in game action for the first time.

Hiller indicated that he has an “outline” of the game group for tomorrow evening, though based on today’s practice and scrimmage, there could be adjustments made, whether that be in terms of personnel or deployment. Expecting the game group to skate in the morning, so we should have a good sense of how the Kings could align in the morning. The Kings are required by the CBA to dress eight “veterans” in each preseason game, with several different qualifiers to fit that quota. More to come tomorrow surrounding the game in Utah!