10/30 Preview – Kuemp-ire Strikes Back + Fiala, PP Struggles, Thomas Numbers

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (5-3-2) vs. Vegas Golden Knights (7-2-1)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Wednesday, October 30 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: TNT – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings are back home on a 24-hour turnaround, hosting the Vegas Golden Knights in a rematch of last week’s defeat at T-Mobile Arena.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings and Golden Knights met eight days prior, with Vegas skating to a 6-1 victory on home ice.

Forward Warren Foegele scored his team’s only goal in that game, with defensemen Joel Edmundson and Jordan Spence tallying the assists on the play. Edmundson’s helper was his sixth in 11 games against Vegas, tied for the most assists he’s collected against any opponent.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings return home following a quick trip to San Jose for their first away/home set of back-to-back games this season.

After David Rittich got the start yesterday in San Jose, look for goaltender Darcy Kuemper to be back between the pipes this evening against the Golden Knights. Kuemper returned from injury on Saturday and made 23 saves on 25 shots to earn the win over Utah. Throughout his career, Kuemper has a 6-7-3 record from 17 appearances against the Golden Knights, with a .930 save percentage and a 2.31 goals-against average. More on Kuemper below.

Here’s how the Kings lined up during yesterday’s defeat in San Jose –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson-Gavrikov
Edmundson-Clarke
Jones-Spence

Rittich

Kevin Fiala will not play tonight as a result of violating team protocol by missing a meeting.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 30, 2024

My expectation is that Kevin Fiala returns to the lineup tonight versus Vegas.

As noted above, Fiala missed yesterday’s game due violating team protocol by missing a meeting. The incident was unrelated to Saturday’s game, when Fiala did not take a shift in the final 24 minutes and change. On Monday, Hiller said that Fiala had a “clean slate” after a conversation between the two that morning. A disappointing turn of events yesterday in San Jose. We’ll hear from Hiller later on today at Crypto.com Arena, but as of now, I am expecting Fiala to return to the lineup.

In terms of additional changes…..not positive with the back-to-back. Akil Thomas made his season debut in what turned out to be a 1-for-1 swap with Fiala. The original plan was that Thomas would check in at 4C in place of Trevor Lewis, but the situation changed between morning skate and the game. Wondering if Thomas retains his place, after scoring a goal and delivering a solid showing and perhaps Lewis gets the night off with the back-to-back. Wait and see. Expecting Hiller to speak around 5:30 PM, so we’ll see what is learned then.

Late in the game, we did see the Kings jumble the lines up a bit. If we see anything continue, Alex Turcotte did take a late shift with Kopitar/Kempe and Quinton Byfield returned to center, with Foegele/Laferriere. If there’s any staying power, that’s what I’d see as the most likely to continue.

VEGAS VITALS: Vegas is off to one of the best starts in the NHL, as they currently top the Pacific Division with seven victories and 15 points through 10 games played.

Per Jesse Granger of The Athletic, here’s how the Golden Knights lined up on Monday against Calgary –

Golden Knights pregame line rushes vs Calgary:

Howden—Hertl—Dorofeyev
Barbashev—Eichel—Stone
Pearson—Karlsson—Holtz
Schwindt—Roy—Kolesar

Hanifin—Pietrangelo
McNabb—Korczak
Theodore—Whitecloud

Hill
Samsonov

— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) October 29, 2024

Entering tonight’s game, Vegas forward Mark Stone is tied for the NHL lead in scoring with 18 points, with three coming in the Golden Knights’ win over Los Angeles last week. Teammate Jack Eichel is just behind with 16 points, tied for fourth in the league in points.

The Golden Knights are expected to dress two former Kings tonight, forward Tanner Pearson and defenseman Brayden McNabb.

Storyline Of The Day – Kuemp-ire Strikes Back
Darcy Kuemper made his presence felt in Saturday’s win over Utah, his first game back from a lower-body injury that kept him out of action for five early-season games.

Kuemper was simply solid in his return. 23 saves on 25 shots. One real-deal save, as he got across the crease, but generally just a solid performance. Jim Hiller referred to Kuemper as simply being “big” in net, using his presence to allow pucks to hit him at the right times. It was a strong performance, exactly what you wanted to see in a first game back.

While Saturday was ultimately the day, had it not been October, I think we could’ve maybe seen Kuemper back a game or two earlier. With goaltenders, though, the process is just a bit different. You can’t ease a goaltender back into the lineup with a lesser role, or reduced minutes. It’s an all or nothing situation. That was the approach taken with Kuemper here. Make sure he was 100 percent and then re-insert him into the net.

“You can’t really go out there and protect certain parts of your body, you’re not going to play at your best, and you need to be all in,” Kuemper said. “So you want to be feeling as close to 100% as you can.”

Kuemper admitted it “sucked” to miss time, but seemed optimistic about his return. Ultimately, that’s why he does this, to be with his teammates on the ice. He said he feels “great” now and is back to 100 percent.

So far in his return to the Kings, Kuemper has been 3 up, 1 down. The game in Ottawa was an obvious blemish, but he’s been rock solid in each of his additional three appearances. Kuemper enters tonight with 2.41 goals saved above average, per Natural Stat Trick, of the 70 goaltenders to appear in an NHL game this season, Kuemper is one of 18 over two in terms of GSAA at 5-on-5, led by the opening-night win over Buffalo.

When he was out of action, Kuemper had the chance to watch the team from a completely different vantage point.

Taking in the game from above allows players a different view. Often times, they see how slowly things can sometimes develop. Perhaps less useful for a goaltender, but Kuemper appreciated the experience.

“I like to go up top and watch the game, it’s a different vantage point than what I’m used to,” Kuemper said of his time out. “You see different things and feel the atmosphere a little bit.”

As for what he learned, if anything, Kuemper alluded to something that I think has been apparent – consistency.

It’s not necessarily a matter of what, but a matter of doing that what more regularly. We’ve seen good spells from the Kings but they haven’t been nearly as regularly as you’d expect from this team, and what this team expects of itself.

“As a group, we’re learning what makes us successful,” he added. “We know what it is, we’ve just got to make sure that we do it all the time.”

With the Kings playing back-to-back, off a performance that was not up to standard yesterday, they’ll turn to Kuemper to help pull them back. With Vegas in the building as the opposition, Kuemper will have to be at his best to help earn the team a result tonight.

3 To Watch For –
– The Kings had six opportunities on the power play last night and were not able to score. In total, the Kings attempted 17 shots while up a man, but wound up with just three shots on goal over those six opportunities. While those can sometimes be deceptive, I think 0-for-6 is a number that speaks for itself.

Phillip Danault felt the Kings did get some looks, but lacked the clinical finishing necessary to do damage on the power play. Jim Hiller used the word “crisp” to describe what the Kings weren’t last night, starting at 5-on-5 and continuing on the power play.

If it was one night, no issue, right? Both units were shuffled in the absence of Kevin Fiala and some nights, it just doesn’t click. The Kings, though, have been on the PP for the third-most time in the NHL but have just five goals, tied for the tenth fewest. While these stats are more valuable at 5-on-5, the Kings rank last in the NHL in scoring chances per/60 and 31st in high-danger chances in power-play situations.

We saw signs of life on Saturday, as the Kings did a much better job of executing the system, getting bodies in between the penalty killers to provide traffic, rebound threats and retrievals. Things we saw in practice on Friday showed up in the game. Last night, though, was a step back. It’s early days yet, but getting that unit back on track has to be a key, beginning tonight against Vegas, a team that certainly scores on its chances, entering today’s game fourth in the league in PP%. Needs to be more productive.

– If there was a positive takeaway, I’d highlight Akil Thomas in his season debut.

I think we’d all agree it was overdue. The numbers at the end of the evening saw Thomas at the top of the charts in several categories. With Akil Thomas on the ice, and he played 10:55 at 5-on-5, Thomas was on the ice for 21 shot attempts for and 5 against. On the ice for 80 percent of scoring chances for, also leading the Kings, and he was not on the ice for a high-danger chance against. Thomas was also the individual leader in terms of shot attempts with six, while he also led the team in scoring chances and high-danger chances.

Makes you wonder how the Kings might align tonight. Thomas fit Danault and Moore like a glove. I thought that was the line that looked right last night, in a game when many did not. They got the goal and did the things that we have come to expect from Moore and Danault. A lot of guys need to bring more and those guys were included there at times. Hopefully last night is one to build on for those players.

Keep it going, Akil.

– Lastly, sharing this quote from Jim Hiller, speaking about playing the same opponent twice in short succession, as the Kings are doing tonight with Vegas.

“When you haven’t played the team, you scout them playing a different opponent and sometimes you try to find an opponent that maybe plays a similar game to you, so you can kind of see what that looks like. The beauty of playing a team once already is you have game footage of yourself, so you can see where you maybe weren’t as good, where they might be good and I always think the players appreciate watching themselves versus watching Vegas, they appreciate watching themselves. I think that the focus is a little bit tighter, and it’s the same thing on [Vegas] side too. There’s no advantage. I just think it’s a better prep, it’s just more engaging.”