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11/25 Preview – Avenging San Jose + 5-on-5 Defensive Figures, Moverare’s “Best” Stretch

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WHO: Los Angeles Kings (11-7-3) @ San Jose Sharks (6-12-5)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Monday, November 25 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: SAP Center – San Jose, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings are back on the road for a quick trip up North, as they visit the San Jose Sharks for the final time this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings and Sharks have split their first two meetings of the season, with each team winning on home ice.

Forwards Warren Foegele (2-1-3) and Alex Laferriere (1-2-3) have both recorded three points from the first two games of the season against the Sharks, while defenseman Brandt Clarke and forward Trevor Moore each have an assist in both games. Forward Akil Thomas has scored in both games he’s played in this building with the Kings, including the previous meeting here back in October.

KINGS VITALS: Today’s game is a one-off on the road, as the Kings look to avenge their last trip to San Jose.

Based on practice yesterday, and morning skate today, look for goaltender David Rittich to get the start between the pipes, his fourth consecutive start in the absence of Darcy Kuemper. Rittich has faced San Jose more times than any other opponent, posting a lifetime mark of 6-3-3 from 15 games played, with a .899 save percentage and a 2.62 goals-against average.

After a full-team practice yesterday, the Kings held an optional morning skate today. Unclear on tonight’s alignment, with last game’s lines shown for reference –

So, the only change we know is with regards to the backup goaltender. Erik Portillo was assigned to Ontario on Saturday to get game action and he made 33 saves on 34 shots as the Reign defeated San Diego. He was promptly recalled on Sunday morning and made the flight to San Jose, where he is expected to backup tonight for the Kings against the Sharks.

Beyond that, the Kings have forward Akil Thomas, as well as defensemen Andreas Englund and Kyle Burroughs as options, if Jim Hiller looks to make any kind of lineup adjustments. Thomas was off the ice a bit earlier than the others and could return tonight up front, likely in place of Samuel Helenius, though remains to be seen if that’s the ultimate decision.

SHARKS VITALS: The Sharks are 6-5-3 after dropping their first nine games of the season, with four of their last seven going into overtime.

Per Max Miller of The Hockey News, here’s how San Jose lined up last time out –

The Sharks currently have three goaltenders on their roster, including top goaltendiong prospect Yaroslav Askarov, who was acquired from Nashville over the summer. Askarov made his season debut on Thursday agaist St. Louis, stopping 29 of 31 in a convincing performance. Per Miller, Askarov is “an option” to play tonight, either him or MacKenzie Blackwood.

The right side of the 2024-25 San Jose forward lineup looks similar to the right side of the 2019-20 Los Angeles forward lineup, with Tyler Toffoli and Carl Grundstrom occupying two of the four spots. See if that remains the same for tonight’s game against their former club.

Storyline Of The Day – Getting Things Right
The Kings are back in San Jose.

The last time they were here was one of the team’s worst performances of the season. The Kings dropped a 4-2 decision against the Sharks, in a showing they were quite unhappy with. Felt like they wound up taking it out the next day against the Vegas Golden Knights, who they throttled at home in one of the season’s best performances. Still though, the San Jose defeat stung for a number of reasons.

“It’s on all of our minds, we weren’t happy with how that went,” defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “We would’ve liked a different fate that night and it’s nice that we get to do it over tonight, hopefully better this time.”

For everyone involved, that loss in San Jose is still in the back of minds a little bit.

“100 percent.”

Both Clarke and Hiller started off their respective answers with that figure. So they’re thinking about it.

The word of the morning was intensity.

Clarke felt that the Kings “didn’t come out with the intensity we wanted to” in the defeat here last month. He felt there would be small spurts of playing well in that game, but each time, it dipped right away and it’s hard to win when that happens.

The Kings felt that the three games recently at home did carry the needed level of intensity, even in the defeat against Buffalo. Now, as Jim Hiller said this morning, the Kings have to bring that same level of intensity on the road tonight versus the Sharks.

“We’ve come off three games where we played with some pretty good intensity, three home games and we have to bring that, that’s got to travel with us,” Hiller said. “You don’t know what the outcome’s going to be, but we have to have the same focus, intensity and defensive structure as we had in our homestand.”

Hope it was packed on the team plane.

Simply put, it was one of the most disappointing showings of the season from the Kings point of view. Something they have not hidden from, something they’ve talked about wanting to get right tonight. It’s less than a month since that game happened and the Kings are still thinking about it. Time to go out and make good.

“As long as I’ve been here, this has been a tough building for us to play in, so we know it’s going to be a hard game and they’re going to play us tough,” forward Trevor Moore added. “We’ve just go to have that intensity, make sure we’re stingy on defense and getting right on them.”

Time to go out there and get it right.

3 To Watch For –
– On the recent, three-game homestand, the Kings did not allow a single goal at 5-on-5.

It’s interesting. The Kings made systematic changes heading into this season that were designed to produce more offense. Moving from the 1-3-1 in the neutral zone to the 1-2-2 was designed to get wingers moving their feet, with the hopes of creating more offensive opportunities in transition.

The fear in that was potentially getting away from a strong, defensive identity. That certainly has not happened. In fact, they’ve almost doubled down and been even better defensively than they were last season.

“I think it’s the way some guys are wired in here, is to take care of the defensive side first and let the offense come from it,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “I think that was part of it, was trying to add offense, change things with what we want to do and how we want to do it, but try and keep the [defensive play] where it was. I think everyone’s happy so far, as the start of being able to do that.”

That part of the game is working.

Now, they’re in search of more offense to go along with it.

“You can’t force offense, you can’t try to make all the plays and try to get on the rush and make all these nice things, sometimes you’ve just got to put it behind them and grind them down,” forward Trevor Moore added.

Certainly haven’t see any defensive drop off, moving away from the 1-3-1. Now, they continue to search for additional offense to deliver on what they set out to do.

– Another note on defenseman Jacob Moverare, who Jim Hiller has continued to praise.

“I just spoke with him this morning and I think the three-game set that he’s had is his best three games that he’s played with us in a row,” Hiller said of Moverare. “I know he’s spent some time in and out and he’s had some runs, but those three were probably three of his best as a group of three.”

It’s been nice to get that sort of consistency in the role Moverare plays. At the end of the day, coaches value consistency at the bottom of the lineup. Players who play the same game 8 or 9 times out of 10, players who don’t waver in their performance. It’s what Jim Hiller has said he appreciates about Trevor Lewis. It’s something he appreciates about Moverare as well. Continue that approach, that style of play, good things will happen. So far, so good for Mo.

– Lastly, tonight will be the first game the Kings will play against 2024 first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini.

Celebrini missed the first two games this season against the Kings due to injury, but he’s back today and should factor in against the Kings.

In his first 11 games in the NHL, Celebrini has seven points (4-3-7), but it’s been his overall level of play that’s made an impression on Hiller.

“Very powerful skater, he’s caught my eye,” Hiller said. “It’s so hard for a young player, there’s always a lot of hype and it’s hard for a young player, but he’s a player that I’ve watched enough now to catch my eye and this guy is going to be a very good player, you can see it already.”

Kings and Sharks, vengeance on the mind. Puck drops tonight at 7:30 PM!

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