10/24 Preview – Finally A Home Game + Tonight’s Vitals, Trip Evaluations, PP Work

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (3-2-2) vs. San Jose Sharks (0-5-2)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Thursday, October 24 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: I mean, finally, right? After seven games on the road to begin the 2024-25 season, the Los Angeles Kings are finally back on home ice, hosting the San Jose Sharks in their home opener.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings earned seven of a possible eight points against San Jose last season, posting a record of 3-0-1 from four games played versus the Sharks.

Forward Kevin Fiala led the team with five points (1-4-5) from the four matchups, while forward Adrian Kempe had a team-high three goals and defenseman Jordan Spence also added four assists. Though it came with Edmonton, forward Warren Foegele had four points (2-2-4) from three games played versus San Jose last season.

KINGS VITALS: Although the return home in between makes it feel differently, tonight is technically the conclusion of a season-opening, seven-game roadtrip for the Kings.

The Kings held a full-team morning skate today, with goaltender David Rittich off first today in El Segundo. Rittich is in line to make his fifth consecutive start in total. Tonight would mark Rittich’s 14th career appearance versus San Jose, his most against any one opponent. Lifetime, Rittich has a record of 5-2-3 against the Sharks, with a .900 save percentage and a 2.64 goals-against average.

With yesterday’s day off, the Kings held a full-team morning skate today, in advance of tonight’s home opener. Rushes from this morning are as follows –

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

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

Rittich
Copley / Kuemper

On the blueline, the Kings appear set to make one change, with defenseman Kyle Burroughs off early today, in place of defenseman Andreas Englund. Burroughs played the first four games this season and has sat out the last three. With the change, the Kings have adjusted their pairings to adjust to having three LHD and three RHD. Jim Hiller pointed to matchups at home versus on the road as a reason to load up Anderson and Gavrikov in road games. At home, with more flexibility and control, it appears as if those two will be split up to start today’s game, as Anderson was paired with Spence and Gavrikov was next to Burroughs.

EDIT – Darcy Kuemper was activated from injured reserve today and will back up Rittich tonight.

SAN JOSE VITALS: The Sharks have lost seven consecutive games to begin the season, entering tonight’s game with a record of 0-5-2.

Per Sheng Peng of SJ Hockey Now, here’s how the Sharks lined up last time out against Anaheim on Tuesday –

#SJSharks lines tonight, late change, Dellandrea moves up, Kunin moves down…once again, Will Smith is in, Blackwood starts:

Eklund-Granlund-Toffoli
Gushchin-Wennberg-Zetterlund
Goodrow-W. Smith-Dellandrea
Kostin-Sturm-Kunin

Walman-Ceci
Ferraro-Rutta
Thrun-Thompson

Blackwood

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 23, 2024

Former Kings forward Tyler Toffoli will take on his former team for the first time as a member of the Sharks. With four goals and seven points, Toffoli is the early-season leader for San Jose in both catagories. In 10 games lifetime against the club that drafted him, Toffoli has six points (4-2-6) and a -6 rating.

Storyline Of The Day – Home Sweet Home
About time, right?

“It’s the end of October and we haven’t even been down Crypto yet, so a little different,” forward Anze Kopitar said. Everybody’s excited, obviously, for tonight.”

7 consecutive games on the road to open the season. While the trip broke down more like a five-game trip and a two-game trip, the Kings did play two preseason games in Quebec City, so it really was a true seven-game trip from a travel perspective. As Jim Hiller pointed out, it’s been even longer in some ways. The Kings haven’t played a game in their building since Game 4 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Zero preseason games at home and the first seven regular-season games on the road. Simply put, it’s time.

“It’ll be great, it’s been awhile,” Hiller said. “We talk about seven games but no, it’s been 13 and we haven’t had one yet. Our fans are great, the energy, I know our guys will be excited. It’s time.”

It’s a welcomed change of scenery for a group that is sick of hotels, sick of buses, sick of being away from home.

3-2-2 is a pretty good trip, all things considered. In 58 years of existence, this was just the 23rd roadtrip of seven games or longer in their history. Of the previous 22 trips, just three of them included a point total of more than eight points and one of those was an eight-game trip. Without Drew Doughty, with an injury to Darcy Kuemper, on a team that is introducing new concepts across the board, the bigger picture was fine.

I’d put it like this. If you came into the season with a positive outlook on the Kings, nothing from this trip should deter you from still having that outlook. If your outlook was negative, it’s likely still negative. I think the Kings did a lot of good things and had some areas that need improvement. At the end of the day, it’s a results-driven industry and I really don’t think you can be upset with the eight points. Work in progress, but there’s still a lot of positive to take from it.

“It was a bit of a roller coaster, you want to obviously stay as consistent as you can, but then again, you’re getting a .500, I guess, record on the road, I think pretty much any team would take that,” Kopitar said. “So, there’s certainly room for improvement, and we’re going to have to be better in certain areas. There’s also some positives too [and] both situations will be addressed and improved on going forward.”

Now we’re back home, and the Kings will play four of their next five in this building. It’s a small reprieve, and a team that

For the first time, Kings players will see the new scoreboard at Crypto.com Arena. They’ll see the new-look City View Terrace. They’ll be seeing those things for the first time, as I will be and as I assume anyone attending the game will be. Typically, you’d like to have a preseason game or two, or even like a Black/White scrimmage in your building to get the feel for it. For Kopitar, it’s not needed. He’s been here. For several guys, though, it will be a lot of firsts, driving in, parking, home locker room, new routine. Small things, but such is life this season.

Regardless, this is a team that has been dying to be back here in Los Angeles.

“Very excited,” forward Kevin Fiala added. “We’ve all been waiting for this for a bit, for a while I feel like, and we’re all very excited to just get it going at home, with our fans. Just very excited to play the first one.”

Good to get one in, for sure.

3 To Watch For
– The first four games this season for the Kings saw the team bury four power-play goals, five really if you include Trevor Moore’s in Boston, which came as the penalty expired.

The last three, though, were scoreless.

The Kings felt than they created enough in Montreal and Anaheim but didn’t get one to go. The game in Vegas, though, felt like a step back.

“I think the last game was the only game that wasn’t going well, like in Anaheim, we could have scored so many goals, it [just] didn’t go in,” Fiala said. “I think you just simplify again, you find the right places, don’t force anything, shoot some pucks, get the net-front presence and just get maybe a dirty one. I’m sure it will turn around.”

The Kings worked on the power play during Monday’s practice here and ran through it again this morning, during a full-team skate.

Jim Hiller’s message was quite similar to Fiala’s, in terms of not overthinking the situation. Once you start thinking instead of doing, that’s when things have a tendency to go wrong.

“We don’t want to overthink it,” Hiller said. “I think we’ve had some really good looks, a couple of posts, Laf had Kempe at the back post [in Vegas], that’s usually money. We’ve had enough good looks, we don’t want to overthink it too much, we’ll just continue what we’re doing and expect that something’s going to go in.”

– The Kings felt that netfront battles were a big area in which Vegas controlled their game on Tuesday evening.

“Vegas did a good job of getting to our netfront,” Hiller said this morning. “We were at their netfront, but maybe not quite as dangerous as they were, they got better body positioning, so that’s something that we have to be better at. That’s a specific area of that game that we will address.”

If yoiu look at the area in which Vegas scored, and won battles, the arena just outside the crease was a big factor. It’s not something the Kings are targeting to fix specifically for San Jose tonight, but something, in general, they know needs to be improved.

– Lastly, sharing a message from LA Kings PR on the late Gann Matsuda –

The entire LA Kings organization was saddened to learn of the recent passing of longtime writer Gann Matsuda. Gann was a passionate member of the media corps covering the Kings for more than a decade. In addition to being respected at his craft, he was affable and well-liked among his peers and those he worked with. He was unable to attend games in recent years and his presence was sorely missed. It’s with the utmost respect that we honor him tomorrow at our home opener. In his memory, a seat will be held in the press box to commemorate his devotion to shining a light on the Kings. To honor Gann, with consultation from the Matsuda family, the LA Kings are making a donation to the Manzanar Committee, an organization Gann generously donated his time and energy toward. Gann will always be Frozen Royalty in the LA Kingdom.

Gann was a good man and it was very saddening to hear of his passing. Hadn’t seen him in a couple of years, but certainly saw him around the rink quite a bit when I first started with the Ontario Reign in 2018. There will be a seat memorialized for tonight’s home opener in Gann’s memory, a fitting tribute to a man who truly enjoyed being up in the press box.