10/19 Practice – Kuemper to IR, Edmundson Returns, “Best” Practice Yet + Spence talks reset, FanDuel Sports Network

Home Sweet Home!

The LA Kings hit the ice today at Toyota Sports Performance Center, their first skate in this building – this state even – since September.

Good to be back, that’s for sure.

The Kings weaved their way through 18 consecutive days on the road and now they return home, at least sort of. The schedule calls for seven consecutive road games to begin the season, though tomorrow’s game in Anaheim hardly feels like a road game, without the accompanying travel, and Tuesday’s game in Vegas is a quick trip, before the Kings return home for good to play Opening Night on Thursday against San Jose.

As far as today’s skate goes, the Kings aligned as follows –

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

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Englund – Spence
Jones – Burroughs

Rittich / Copley

That alignment does not include goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who was placed on injured reserve today. Kuemper did skate today, apart from the group, working with goaltending coach Mike Buckley, but Jim Hiller was not positive on Kuemper’s timeline. Kuemper is not playing tomorrow in Anaheim and we’ll go from there. Sounds to be a bit unknown at this time with regards to timeline, but if he was on the ice today, wouldn’t imagine the severity is all that high. Injured reserve is a seven-day timeline and it could be applied retroactively.

Defenseman Joel Edmundson did return to the group today, after missing games in Toronto and Montreal, as he was back in Los Angeles for the birth of his first child. Good to have him back here today.

The alignment for today’s practice was similar to what we saw in Montreal. The Kings made wholesale changes both with their forwards and their defensemen and saw some pretty positive results. Hiller pointed to the play of Alex Turcotte as being the reasoning the Kings were able to move Quinton Byfield back to the wing, temporarily. Turcotte has earned more and he received it. He performed quite well with the extra minutes. As long as he stays at that level, no reason to think it won’t continue.

With the defensemen, Edmundson returned to the group today for a full practice, which should set the stage for his return to the lineup on Sunday in Anaheim. Today, he moved back to his original pairing alongside Brandt Clarke, while the Englund/Spence pairing remained together from the game in Montreal, while Caleb Jones and Kyle Burroughs made up the rest of the blueline configuration behind the pairing of Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavrikov, which is expected to remain together for tomorrow’s game.

Up front, with Turcotte moving into the top nine, I wonder if it paves the way for Akil Thomas to check in for his season debut. He had some success last season in Anaheim and he’s got the ability to play both center and wing. The fourth line had one of its weaker performances in Montreal, after a very strong game in Toronto on Wednesday. If Tanner Jeannot remains with that line, he brings both physicality and experience, so the Kings could feel more comfortable without Andre Lee or Trevor Lewis for a game, if they’d like to get Thomas in at center. Not sure, though, exactly what the Kings will choose to do there.

See how that shakes out tomorrow.

As far as practice today, Jim Hiller said it was perhaps his team’s best practice of the season.

“We had a meeting, we went out and I just thought it was maybe the best practice of the year,” Hiller said. “All things considered, with the focus and the intensity that we had, I don’t know what it is, other than they were ready to play happy to be home in the sunshine, but it was a good intensity. We didn’t want to go long, we wanted it to be intense and they brought it.”

Hopefully see that same intensity tomorrow evening in Anaheim.

Notes –
Responding The Right Way
“I look at Jordan Spence, who missed a game [in Toronto], he came back in and played his best game of the year. He looked like he did in preseason, he looked like he did last year. Full marks to him.”

That was Jim Hiller, speaking on defenseman Jordan Spence following Thursday’s win over Montreal.

Spence was a healthy scratch on Wednesday in Toronto, with Hiller noting that his regular-season performances in the first three games didn’t match the level he delivered in the preseason. Often times with younger players, or even veterans, a day off to simply reset isn’t a bad thing. Hiller took that approach early with Spence, sitting out in Toronto and re-inserting him in Montreal. We saw it with Olli Maatta a couple seasons back and we almost saw it with Matt Roy before that. Saw it with Alex Laferriere last season as well.

Spence played 18:49 at even strength on Thursday, second most among Kings defensemen, and was on the ice for two goals for compared to none against. So, clearly the confidence in using him has not dropped at all.

For his part, Spence took the decision the right way.

I would imagine the way the message was delivered is important too, but the way it’s received can tell you a lot about a player. Spence felt his games early in the season weren’t his best and felt more like himself in Montreal. That’s not to say he was happy about it, because he wasn’t but he was accountable. Spence is a player the Kings need going forward, because he can be a very effective one.

“The first three games that I had, it wasn’t really my game, I didn’t play that well, I take accountability on that,” Spence said. “I think Jimmy sitting me out against Toronto, I think it was just a kind of a reset button for me to clear my mind, not putting too much pressure on myself. I think when I was playing in Montreal, before the game, I just kind of wanted to play my own game, not think about it as much, just have fun and I think that was the biggest thing that happened during that game, is just to relax, you’re just playing the game that you love. So, I think I had a pretty solid game, but at the same time, it’s only one game, so I just want to be pretty consistent from now on and go.”

For Spence, his original assignment was to take on the role that Drew Doughty filled last season.

Everyone maintained that the role was to be filled by committee and it wasn’t a like-for-like situation exactly, but someone had to be the guy next to Mikey Anderson. Spence was certainly the best equipped for the assignment off the bat among the team’s right-shot defensemen. It’s probably what I would’ve done to start too.

Spence did his best, but it was a tough hand to be dealt. By his own admission, he put too much pressure on himself and tried to do too much at times. Spence is a smooth skater and a good puck mover, but when he gets away from using those tools in a simple manner, he becomes less effective.

“I think everyone has said it, no one can fill Dewey’s role just by themselves, it has to be a team effort,” Spence added. “Personally for me, I think I just put too much pressure on myself to kind of fill in that role and that kind of just caused my game a little bit and not being simple. I think I just have to play my game, not worry about everything and have a clear mind playing.”

When he uses his tools within the simple approach, he is very effective. He certainly had the clear mind in Montreal. A strong performance, next to a comfortable partner in Andreas Englund and Spence delivered the type of game he wants to. Upward and onward is his approach, he’s looking forward from here and he’s hopeful to keep it up moving forward.

Fan Duel Sports
Worst kept secret in sports, I guess.

Bally Sports will become FanDuel Sports Network on October 21!

➡️ https://t.co/mhpr85v6PO pic.twitter.com/yB6yd1Pwbk

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) October 18, 2024

Tomorrow’s game will be the final game the Kings play on the network known as Bally Sports West. Starting on Monday, with the first Kings game coming on Tuesday, local Kings games can now be found on Fan Duel Sports Network.

Essentially nothing should change, minus the branding of the game…..for your sake, maybe the placement of the scorebug on your television sets too. For in-market fans, if you have access now, you should still have access as you did. If you don’t, as far as I know at this time, your options remain the same. For out-of-market fans, ESPN+ should still work as it always has, it will just be a different look. This shouldn’t change much, really, so if you’re happy, you’re still happy and if you’re unhappy, then you’re probably still unhappy. FanDuel is a big name in the game, though, which would seem to offer some stability it and sounds as if there should be additional programming added into the fold, coming from FanDuel TV, though that won’t impact Kings games.

Nick, Jim and Daryl still providing the play-by-play and analysis, Carrlyn, Patrick and Jarret in between and for some reason, they might allow me on from time to time. When they run out of better ideas, that is.

.@DooleyLAK joins @CarrlynBathe to discuss the promising youth in the Kings' lineup🎤@LAKings I #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/okIRSqkQaP

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) October 17, 2024

Good change as far as I’m concerned but I am sure you’ll let me know either way.

Looking ahead, had a really good chat with Alex Turcotte today and will spin that into a feature story, hopefully on Monday, heading into the game in Vegas. Couple of notes for the game preview tomorrow, with a focus on Turcotte’s line with Foegele and Laferriere, as well as a few other bullets from practice today heading into the game tomorrow in Anaheim. 2-1-2, with two more away games before the team finally gets to play in Los Angeles. Good to have those on Pacific time, at the very least!