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10/15 Practice Report – Today’s Alignment + Edmundson in LA for “family reasons”, PP Breakdown

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Practice Day in Toronto, Insiders.

As far as today’s skate, the Kings hit the ice at Coca Cola Coliseum, home of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.

The team skated for 30-40 minutes, working on a few specific details in their game to prepare for Toronto tomorrow evening. Couple of areas certainly to focus on. The Kings played at 1 PM local time in Ottawa, so they’ll have two nights here in Toronto, with the practice day today and a morning skate tomorrow that I’d expect to be pretty optional. Some may choose to skate, but under Jim Hiller, the Kings have generally chosen an optional skate on days following a full-team practice.

As for today’s alignment, we saw the following deployment during practice –

Laferriere – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Foegele
Jeannot – Danault – Moore
Lee – Turcotte – Lewis – Thomas

Anderson – Clarke
Gavrikov – Burroughs
Englund – Jones – Spence

Kuemper / Rittich

Regarding today’s skate, defenseman Joel Edmundson did not practice with the team. Per Jim Hiller, Edmundson returned to Los Angeles for “family reasons”. Unclear on if he will play tomorrow in Toronto or Thursday in Montreal, but should get some clarity tomorrow.

If Edmundson does not play, it likely tags either Andreas Englund or Caleb Jones to check into the lineup against the Maple Leafs. Not positive based on today, but Englund seemed to have the inside track throughout camp on the left side. Not that it really matters, but Toronto was actually one of Englund’s best games last season. On the ice for two goals for, including one he scored, and none against. Kings had eight scoring chances with Englund on the ice at 5-on-5, none against.

My initial thought was that it will be interesting to see if Edmundson’s absence impacts the lineup any further, or if it is simply a 1-for-1 swap with either Englund or Jones alongside Brandt Clarke at even strength. Today’s skate saw Clarke skating with Mikey Anderson, with Spence, Jones and Englund as the de-facto third pairing. See how that shakes out into tomorrow.

Looking at the forwards, there were no apparent changes. The Kings obviously had several breakdowns in Ottawa yesterday afternoon but they did score four goals in 5-on-5 situations, led by two goals from Anze Kopitar’s line. The Danault and Turcotte lines each scored in the game, while the power play tacked on the additional three goals. If there was anything of interest, Byfield’s line was dressed in a “top-six” gray jersey, while Danault’s line was in white, typically for the third line. Akil Thomas rotated in with yesterday’s fourth line during today’s skate.

Power-Play Progress
The game in Ottawa had a ton of negatives. Will dive into the biggest one later on today, but for now, let’s offer up a positive nugget from yesterday’s game – the power play.

Jim Hiller felt the power play was pretty solid in Boston. Goals are the goal, though. Yesterday delivered in that area.

“I thought in Boston we had a good night on the power play, I know Phil’s unit scored late, so jt wasn’t credited as a power-play goal, but thought we really had some good looks and Swayman was the difference that night on the power play,” Hiller said. “But. great to see it go in [in Ottawa]. You could have good looks, but guess what, everybody wants one on the back of the net, players included. Nice to see Kevin get one on the power play nice to see Kempe get one on the power play.

Again, there is a lot to go over the other way, I get that. Will dive into the defensive side of the game tonight.

As Hiller put it – “of course, that we probably the only bright spot from our game as a whole.”

For this morning, though, how about a look at a power-play unit that broke through with three goals, all of which were desperately needed in a high-scoring game, to help will the Kings to a point in overtime.

The power play has had its ups and downs throughout the preseason, into the first two games of the regular season. Anze Kopitar buried a goal in Buffalo and the second unit essentially scored one in Boston, though it came a second after the penalty had expired. Yesterday, that unit took it to another level.

The first goal was a nice give and go play between Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala.

Feels like Fiala has found his home on the power play. The first season he was here, he sometimes played in that spot but he was almost exclusively a facilitator. Last year, he added the scoring touch to his game, many of which came from exactly where he scored yesterday in Ottawa. The passes created just enough room for Fiala to unload. Kopitar hesitated on the return for a quarter second. That drew attention to him, before finding Fiala for the goal.

The second PPG of the game was a masterclass.

Six consecutive good decisions, including Adrian Kempe’s to unload a rocket of a one-timer. Fiala and Clarke exchanged the puck to start the play off, generating room for Fiala, who found Kopitar by the goal line. Rather than force it into the slot, Kopitar threaded a pass to Clarke at the center point. Clarke shifted and simply teed up Kempe to fire away, which he did for the goal.

Goal number three was about as simple as you can make it, though that’s not always a bad thing. Kopitar wins the draw, Clarke wheels it around the top of the umbrella and kicks it back to Fiala, who shoots through traffic and in from the point. Basic stuff, but especially in a game like that, basic isn’t a bad thing.

Short report for now – longer story to come here tonight, with a look at a simple question – how the Kings are looking to clean things up defensively, with the high-flying Toronto Maple Leafs on tap.

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