Practice 12/9 – Kings in NY + Breaking Down The 11/7, Turcotte’s Role, Jones Clears Waivers

Practice Day, Long Island edition!

As has been typical for the Kings, at least since I’ve been covering the team, is that in advance of an East Coast trip, the Kings fly out a day early, giving everyone a day of practice to adjust to the time difference and get their bodies right after a cross-country flight.

The Kings did not skate yesterday, departing Los Angeles early in the morning and arriving in New York right around dinner time. Today, it’s a noon practice skate at UBS Arena, where they will begin a seven-game roadtrip tomorrow evening against the Islanders. Unlike a lot of these trips, the Kings should have ample practice time, if they choose to use it. The only back-to-back comes with Games 6 and 7, with at least one day in between every day on the trip. So, as much as the Kings want to practice, they will have the opportunity to do so.

Today’s skate was a bit on the longer side, running right around 45 minutes. The team focused on the power play for an extended stretch, including introducing a new netfront presence, David Rittich.

New netfront man on the power play today for the @LAKings. pic.twitter.com/leSxPDuniG

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 9, 2024

Just kidding.

Some full-ice 5-on-5 work as well today and some drills in smaller situations as well. Noticed a lot of energy today, which shouldn’t be all that surprising from a team on a five-game winning streak.

Below is the alignment from today’s practice –

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

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

Kuemper / Rittich

Not included with the group today was Arthur Kaliyev, who did not make the trip to start, along with defenseman Caleb Jones, who was placed on waivers by the Kings yesterday.

Jones had been out of action since November 13, when he suffered an upper-body injury in the loss against Colorado. He’s back and healthy now but should the Kings look to add a player into their group of what currently sits at 22 players, it feels as if it would likely be a forward, which made Jones the odd-man out. As of today, Jones has cleared waivers and the expectation is he would be assigned to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. The Reign do not play until Sunday, so if the Kings do want to recall a forward, they can do so with relative ease.

For Kaliyev, he has been making progress and he could potentially join the trip at a later date. A conditioning loan to the AHL could also make sense for a player who has not played a game this season and had basically his entire training camp wiped out by an injury. He’s not ready yet but will keep an eye on his progress.

For the group on the ice, it’s 12 forwards and eight defensemen at this time.

The Kings have gone with an 11/7 alignment over each of their last two games, both victories over top-caliber opponents. With Akil Thomas now back from injury, the Kings will likely feel comfortable going back to 12 forwards but Jim Hiller has shown zero hesitation in going 11/7. He actually prefers it in a lot of different situations.

A look below at how the 11/7 seems to work in favor of select forwards on the Kings, considering their alignment. Also considering their record of 15-2-1 when deploying that alignment.

I see the 11/7 as benefitting the team in two ways, beyond Hiller’s preference of additional flexibility.

One is the status of Alex Turcotte.

Turcotte has kind of become the odd-man out of the top nine with Tanner Jeannot getting a run with Quinton Byfield’s line. Turcotte doesn’t deserve to have his minutes or role reduced, but it’s where it’s at right now. He’s one player who should benefit in an 11/7 and, ultimately, his minutes and Jeannot’s were only about a minute apart on Saturday.

Turcotte is perhaps the most versatile piece in the 11/7. He’s been LW1 this season. He’s been 3C. He’s been on the fourth line. Against Minnesota, his most common linemate was Samuel Helenius, which makes sense as those guys were the pair of two in the 11/7. Turcotte also played at least two and a half minutes with Warren Foegele, Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala as all four players rotated throughout the lineup. Some shifts came with Helenius, others came with Turcotte plugging in somewhere else. Turcotte was above 50 percent in terms of shot attempts controlled with each of those players. Hiller appreciated Turcotte’s versatility and has talked with him directly about his role and how highly he is thought of.

“Him and I have talked a lot, just about that,” Hiller said of Turcotte. “I try to tell him not to overthink anything, I plug and play him everywhere. He’s had time with Kopi and Juice, he can play on any line and I think he’s done a really good job of that. I think he understands the contribution he makes, night in and night out. He understands the respect he has from his teammates and from his coaches.”

Hiller added that he believes Turcotte is in a better place with his role now than he might have been last year, or even the beginning of this season, before his ascension.

Turcotte talked today about his own versatility, viewing it as a point of pride, and seeing the 11/7 as an opportunity to get more shifts, especially on nights when he’s on the fourth line. He’s playing different positions, with different players, sometimes on a shift-to-shift basis.

For those wondering about where Turcotte is placed in the lineup, it’s good to see it discussed. He’s played better than where he’s at, but the team has won five straight games and Jeannot has also played very well, as a part of what’s been the team’s tone setting line on the forecheck. Turcotte’s role will increase eventually and he’ll get another shot higher in the lineup. I don’t know when, but it will come. The 11/7, in the interim, should help him get extra shifts, when the Kings choose to go that route.

Additionally, it allows for players in the middle of the lineup to get added minutes.

Hiller said that the goal isn’t to push guys like Anze Koptiar and Adrian Kempe, who are comfortable around the 19-20 minute mark, which is where they’ve been over the last couple games. The Kings want the extra minutes to go to guys like Trevor Moore, Kevin Fiala, Warren Foegele and Alex Laferriere, for example.

Fiala is averaging 17:17 this season but is at 18:37 in the 11/7. Moore averaged 19:26 in the two 11/7 games, up just more two minutes from his season average, which is a combination of playing with Kopitar and Kempe, as well as the change to the 11/7. Foegele is right around two minutes above his season average as well, while Laferriere has averaged right around 16 minutes per game this season, up to 17:38 in the 11/7 alignment.

Fiala said today that it allows him to get into the “rhythm” a little bit more. Especially when there’s more special teams, the 11/7 gives him those couple of extra shifts that he feels give him a little bit more jump.

Overall, it’s what, 2-3 shifts per game, per player?

It’s not crazy, but Hiller believes that those players are perhaps below their threshold normally and are capable of playing the extra couple minutes per night. He actually feels they are more energized with the extra shifts.

“Kopi was at 20 minutes and Kopi is usually around 20 minutes anyways, so as long as we don’t extend some of those guys too much,” Hiller detailed. “If Laf goes from 15 to 17 or Foegele goes from 15 to 17 or Mooresie goes from 17 to 18, we’re asking Juice and Kopi to play 19 or 20 anyways, so I don’t think those guys mind going from 15 to 17, I think they would tell you they’ve got more energy at 17 than 15.”

With all of that written, I’m sure the Kings will be right back to 12 forwards tomorrow. Or not. Who knows.

Throughout these seven away games, I’d expect to see both looks thrown out there. The schedule has been very favorable for the Kings lately. Two games in nine days allows for proper rest times and if you do run guys harder, even against best-laid plans, there was ample recovery time in between. This trip, as noted above, does allow for days off and practice time, so the same principle applies, though not quite on a 2 in 9 stretch. I think, though, that we’re likely to see the Kings deploy both 11 and 12 forwards at times on this trip throughout the seven games, depending on how things go.

So many more storylines to attack here throughout the course of this trip, assuming the team stays the course.

Some good dialogue today about the power play, which I’ll add onto with some additional interviews tomorrow and include as the main portion of the game preview. Also planning on a look into Alex Laferriere’s play, as he matched last season’s goal total in 54 fewer games. Much more to come over the course of a seven-game trip!