Practice 11.12 – Kings at DU + Moore w/ Kempe and Kopitar, Today’s Alignment

Back at ‘er, Insiders.

Kings were not pleased with yesterday’s performance. Anze Kopitar put it quite bluntly after the loss – “everything has to be better.”

Once the Kings arrived, they carried play. Pretty evident and well displayed by this graph of shot attempts on Natural Stat Trick, showing 5-on-5 opportunities.

The problem isn’t that they arrived, it’s when they arrived.

I originally thought the trend started to pivot towards the Kings after Trevor Moore moved onto a line with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe. In 6:48 together, beginning after the team went down 2-0, they had 11 shots attempts for, compared to four against, not to mention five scoring chances for versus one against. They scored the team’s only goal, though it came with the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker.

“I think it can be easier, because you’re already in it, you don’t have to think, you just have to go out there and play,” Moore said, of adjusting top an in-game switch. “Obviously I know those guys. They play a little bit differently than Phil and Kevin, so you just adjust.”

Jim Hiller, though, felt it came before that, with Samuel Helenius’ fight. Helenius dropped the gloves with Justin Kirkland midway through the second period and Hiller felt it turned the tide, as the Kings began to play with the emotion and jam they needed.

Regardless, though, the problem was that it came too late. Once the Kings got going, they got going. If they played the way they played in the second half of the game for 60 minutes and lost 2-1, you’d call it one of those games. Last night became one of those games, but it took awhile to get there. Once the Kings did get going, Dustin Wolf stole a couple and Calgary blocked 37 shots in total, which is an absurd total. The first 30 minutes, though, were not LA Kings hockey. With the Colorado Avalanche on tap tomorrow, it’s got to be 60 minutes of Kings hockey.

The house that Trevor Moore built!@LAKings skating today at the University of Denver. Moore played three seasons there from 2013-16, good to be back on campus. pic.twitter.com/zXGGt7OK8N

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) November 12, 2024

A rare opportunity to practice today for the Kings, as they headed up to Moore’s alma mater to skate at Denver University.

After a late arrival, the Kings didn’t hit the ice until 1 PM today at the Joy Burns Arena.

Here’s how the group was aligned during today’s practice –

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

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

Kuemper / Rittich

The biggest thing to pull from this is the Moore / Kopitar / Kempe line remaining intact.

As noted above, fortunes changed for the Kings midway through the game and I felt this line was the driving factor. I actually haven’t thought that Moore’s game and Kopitar’s game have clicked a ton in the past. We’ve seen them tried together a few different times, but Moore has always gelled best with Danault, while Kopitar and Kempe have worked with a few other players. It’s not a knock on either player, because they’ve both had a lot of success, but for whatever reason, it just hasn’t always clicked. Both players have much stronger splits apart than together, over the last three seasons, but it’s also three players who, on paper, should be able to make it work, as Moore spoke about today.

“I don’t think I have to change too much, I think I can just add something [to that line],” Moore added. “I’ve seen guys like Q play there, he’s a hound on the puck and he brings a lot of speed. Hopefully I can do that too. I think it can work for sure. They play very smart, a little bit more precision passing around the ice, which is awesome. It’s a little bit different than me, whose more of a forechecker. I’ll let them do their thing, I’ll do mine and hope it’ll mesh together.”

Overall, this is a Kings team in search of consistency, especially at that LW1 spot.

With I think a hint of sarcasm, Kopitar mentioned last night that he and Juice have had “a couple” of winger this season. Through 17 games, Kopitar and Kempe have actually had eight different linemates……eight.

Alex Laferriere, Quinton Byfield, Alex Turcotte, Andre Lee, Kevin Fiala, Akil Thomas, Trevor Lewis and now Trevor Moore.

Five different players have played at least a period there since Turcotte got hurt last week in Nashville and the Kings have only played four games in that stretch. Turcotte isn’t expected to be out for all that much longer, but he’s not here in Colorado and that makes him unlikely to feature tomorrow against the Avalanche. So, even if he’s ready for Saturday versus Detroit, and even if the Kings envision him going right back with 11 and 9, that still leaves tomorrow’s game to find a fit.

In speaking with Kopitar after last night’s game, he said the right things. He and Kempe obviously complement each other and Kopitar focused on them playing their game, regardless of who is there. I think he’d like to find a permanent tenant, though, as opposed to the AirBnb method of filling on the go. Hiller, speaking yesterday morning, talked about wanting to find a complementary piece for those two, someone who plays the same way and will fit what they do well. Turcotte offered some of that in limited action. Alex Laferriere and Warren Foegele might offer that also, but Hiller’s preference to this point has been to keep those two together, as they’ve played quite well when paired on a line.

“Sometimes you try to do this for one line and take away from [another] and you end up losing the chemistry you had with the line that was going really well, so we’re not going to do that,” Hiller said, of breaking up Laferriere and Foegele.

Perhaps it can be Moore tomorrow night, during a big test against Colorado.

Whether it’s him or someone else in the long run, finding that piece to help support Kopitar and Kempe is crucial. Despite the revolving door on their left, Kopitar is where he always is – leading the Kings in scoring, with 17 points (5-12-17) from 17 games played. Kempe ranks third with 14 points (5-9-14) and I felt he was the team’s most dangerous player last night in Calgary. Find that missing third piece could only elevate those two and when that line is set, it just seems to set everyone in place on down the lineup.

On the backend, we saw one change today, with Caleb Jones appearing to move up with Jordan Spence, while Andreas Englund skated with Kyle Burroughs.

Call it situational, most likely, but the Kings largely rolled with five defensemen in the third period last night, with Englund the odd-man out. Brandt Clarke wound up playing 10:07 in the third period alone and 24:10 in total, a new career high. It’s actually the second consecutive game he’s set a career best in time on ice, after playing nearly 23 minutes against the Blue Jackets. Outside of one early shift, Clarke had a good night in Calgary and with the team trailing, he’s option number one over the boards on the backend. On a night when the Kings struggled to make things happen, Clarke was one who certainly tried to. With eight shot attempts individually, no King had a higher total. As long as he continues to play at a high level, the Kings will continue to play him in a large role.

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s game, it’ll be a difficult test in Colorado.

Will take a look at one area of the game that the Kings have done a better job with of late, the penalty kill, as the Kings prepare to face the NHL’s second-ranked unit in the Avalanche, who have scored one out of every three in the early stages of the season. More to come later on in the day!