11/20 Preview – Same Lineup Expected + Home Cookin’, Turcotte’s Status, Moverare’s Travel

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (10-6-3) vs. Buffalo Sabres (8-9-1)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Wednesday, November 20 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA 710 + ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: After three days off, that’s honestly felt closer to a week, the LA Kings will return to the ice this evening against the Buffalo Sabres, continuing a three-game homestand.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings and Sabres will conclude the season series tonight, following a 3-1 victory by the Kings on Opening Night back in October.

Forward Anze Kopitar led the way for the Kings offensively, as he accounted for the entirety of the Los Angeles offense with a hat trick in the win in Western New York. Six different Kings collected an assist in that game overall.

KINGS VITALS: Back in Los Angeles, the Kings are at the middle game of a three-game homestand that spans 11 days, the longest stretch of the season to date on both fronts.

Expecting goaltender David Rittich to get the start this evening against Buffalo. Rittich has faced the Sabres six times throughout his professional career, posting a 4-1-1 record, with a .900 save percentage and a 2.79 goals-against average.

The Kings held full-team practices over the last two days and followed up with an optional morning skate today. Here’s how the team could align tonight against the Sabres –

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

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

Rittich
Portillo

As noted in yesterday’s practice report, Jim Hiller confirmed that David Rittich would remain as the starting goaltender tonight, while defenseman Jacob Moverare would retain his place in the lineup after a strong showing on Saturday against Detroit.

Per today’s skate, not expecting any additional changes for tonight’s game versus Buffalo. That leaves forward Akil Thomas, along with defensemen Andreas Englund and Kyle Burroughs, as tonight’s potential scratched players.

BUFFALO VITALS: The Sabres begin their annual California swing tonight, as they take on the Kings in the first of three games here in the Golden State.

Per Jourdon LaBarber of BuffaloSabres.com, here’s how the visitors aligned during yesterday’s practice in El Segundo –

Forward Tage Thompson has missed the team’s last two games due to a lower-body injury, and did not skate in power-play rushes yesterday, per LaBerber.

Forward JJ Peterka has six points (4-2-6) from three games played over the last two seasons against Los Angeles, while forward Dylan Cozens has amassed seven points (2-5-7) from seven career games played versus the Kings.

Storyline Of The Day – Home Cookin’
Here’s a list of teams with a better winning percentage at home since Jim Hiller took over as the Head Coach of the LA Kings last February.

–

There is no list.

At 19-4-2, the Kings have played at a .800 winning percentage on home ice with Hiller as the team’s bench boss. That’s points in 21 of 25 games and just four losses in regulation. The 2024-25 season has been responsible for a record of 5-1-1 to date, with the Kings losing only against Vancouver in regulation, collecting points in each of the other six games. While a .786 winning percentage doesn’t top the NHL, it’s still good for the fourth best clip in the league.

“We’ve talked about it since the beginning of the season, we want this building to be a tough place to play in,” forward Trevor Lewis said. “So far, we’ve done a pretty good job of it.”

Another list with nothing on it would be the list of teams that have played fewer home games so far this season than the Kings. With just seven under their belt, no team in the league has less to this point than Los Angeles, which leads the league with 12 games played on the road.

The Kings are currently in a stretch that sees them play seven of nine on home ice, with the only two road games coming in San Jose and Anaheim. Lots of time in their own beds and lots of time with the familiarity of Crypto.com Arena, a place that’s led to a ton of success here in the early goings this season.

“It’s big, you want to have the advantage at home and play well in front of your fans and you can use all the perks of being at home to your advantage,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “Everyone’s happy with the way we’ve been so far at home, but we’ve got to keep going with it and keep getting better.”

Going forward, the Kings will look to continue to rely on their home form to amass points.

Naturally, a winning percentage of nearly .800 might not be sustainable over 41 games here, but it has happened before over the last few seasons. The NHL’s best teams on home ice typically finish somewhere in the high .700’s and those are almost always playoff teams. Amassing a ton of points here at home, with even average performance on the road, is enough to get the team where it wants to get to at the end of 82 games.

The start has been strong to date, but there’s a long way to go between here and that point. Kings, as Anderson put it, need to keep playing at a high level on home ice, with performances like what was delivered on Saturday against Detroit going a long way towards achieving that.

Now, with Buffalo tonight and Seattle this weekend, it’s about continuing to build that momentum and continuing to keep moving forward when playing in Los Angeles.

“I think we thrive from our fans and they give us a lot of energy that we can get used to, and I think that puts a lot of energy into the game, I think that’s why we’re doing so well at home,” defenseman Jordan Spence added. “We’re just trying to win a lot of games for the fans who show up every game and cheer us on.”

3 To Watch For –
– Looking at Alex Turcotte to play tonight without limitations.

Turcotte’s situation on Saturday is discussed in further detail HERE.

After a couple of good practice days, Turcotte should be set to handle a full workload today, after he was on what was essentially a pitch count in Saturday’s win over the Red Wings. He’ll start the game with Kopitar and Kempe and unlike Saturday, the expectation is that he’ll be ready to go the full 60 minutes and finish the game tonight in that spot.

Kopitar said that Turcotte didn’t look “hesitant” in his first game back, which is exactly what you want to see from a player coming off an injury. Turcotte brought the style of play that has seemed to complement Kopitar and Kempe well. With a couple of good practices together, hopefully that line can get together and stay together, beginning with tonight’s game.

– How about this for a travel story.

Defenseman Jacob Moverare played with the AHL’s Ontario Reign on Wednesday, as the team defeated Tucson. He then flew with the Reign the next day to Colorado, where they were set to take on the Eagles on Friday and Saturday. After deboarding the plane, he and his teammates headed to baggage claim. Waiting for most of them was luggage. For Moverare? Another plane ticket.

He was to head back to Los Angeles, as he was recalled by the Kings and would be back on the ice on Friday for NHL practice.

“It’s part of the job,” he said. “Sometimes, you fly somewhere and you have to fly back, but it was for a good cause. It’s part of the job and I don’t mind it.”

For Moverare, it was all worth it, getting the chance to play against Detroit, back with the big club. With the way he played, perhaps the Kings should’ve flown him to Colorado on Monday just for fun. You know, for consistency.

Jim Hiller called Moverare one of the team’s best defensemen in that game, and not just measured against role. In 14:49 at 5-on-5, Moverare was on the ice for 20 shot attempts for, compared to 13 against, with even more favorable margins in the higher-danger categories. That’s not to say Moverare is an offensive defenseman – he certainly isn’t and he knows that – but the Kings had the puck in the offensive end when he was on the ice. That’s where you want to be.

With continued performances like that, and perhaps a lighter travel schedule, he’ll continue to get NHL opportunities. Perhaps makes you wonder why they didn’t come sooner. Good on him.

– Lastly, the Kings got a rare win against Buffalo back on Opening Night, but this has been a pretty one-sided series over the years. Two of the team’s worst performances last season came against the Sabres……7-0 in Buffalo and a “cookie night” here in Los Angeles, if you recall.

Buffalo has certainly had the Kings’ number in Western New York and even in the Los Angeles victory on October 10, it was the Sabres that controlled the game, with only the performance of Darcy Kuemper in net and the hat trick heroics of Anze Kopitar earning the two points on the road.

Seems to be a difficult test any time the Kings line up against the Sabres, and they’ll need a similar effort to Saturday to get the result. Back to the 7:30 PM puck drop this evening, as the Kings look to keep it going here on home ice.