12/17 Preview – Turcotte & Thomas Steppin Up + Optional Skate, Edmundson’s Play, 11 vs. 87

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (18-9-3) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (13-14-5)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Tuesday, December 16 @ 4:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: PPG Paints Arena – Pittsburgh, PA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings have reached the hump-day portion of their seven-game roadtrip, as they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in a Tuesday-evening faceoff.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings went 1-0-1 versus the Penguins last season, including a 2-1 victory here in Pennsylvania.

Forward Adrian Kempe scored in both games, burying three goals in total across the head-to-head series last season. Kempe has seven goals over six games played in the last three seasons, tied for the most in the NHL among players in the Western Conference.

KINGS VITALS: The visitors held an optional morning skate today in Pittsburgh, following yesterday’s full-team practice.

No Darcy Kuemper on the ice for morning skate today, so I would consider him tonight’s projected starting goaltender tonight in Pittsburgh. Kuemper has faced the Penguins nine times throughout his career, posting a record of 4-4-1, with a .910 save percentage and a 3.08 goals-against average.

No reason to expect the 11/7 won’t continue today, with the Kings winning in convincing fashion in that alignment. An expected lineup, shown below –

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

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Burroughs

Kuemper
Rittich

The Kings have gone 4-1-0 in the 11/7 alignment this season and 17-3-1 under Jim Hiller over the last two seasons. As long as it continues to win, with the schedule currently favorable for it, no reason to think it won’t continue.

Should the Kings look to make a change, forward Andre Lee and defenseman Andreas Englund are available, with the pair on late after today’s morning skate. Forward Trevor Moore is not expected to play due to an upper-body injury.

PENGUINS VITALS: After a slow start to the season, Pittsburgh has moved to within one point of a wild-card position, following a 6-2-1 stretch over their last nine games.

Per the Pittsburgh team account, here’s how the Penguins lined up on Saturday against Ottawa –

Tonight's lineup in Ottawa ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/1t4oF0c8fW

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 14, 2024

Pittsburgh will make at least one lineup change from that group, with defenseman Marcus Pettersson out with a lower-body injury suffered on Saturday.

Forward Blake Lizotte will take on his former team for the first time. Lizotte played the first 320 games of his NHL career with the Kings, before signing in Pittsburgh as a free agent this summer. He’s started off the season strong, with seven goals and 11 points from 16 games played.

Storyline Of The Day – Next Player Up
With forward Trevor Moore currently out of contention, the Kings will look to others to step up. Not a new blueprint, though. We just saw it on Saturday.

Alex Turcotte was the recipient of Moore’s spot against the Rangers. Actually, he wasn’t the recipient. He was the deserved option. Turcotte played a career-high 17:07 on Saturday against the Rangers. He had a goal and an assist playing on Kopitar’s line, as a part of the team’s 11/7 alignment. Turcotte has had runs there before and he’s found success at times. He was playing in that spot when he got hurt back in November and was placed back there after returning.

He found himself as the odd-man out after the Kings lost 7-2 in San Jose, shuffled down to the fourth line despite playing better than fourth-line caliber. Perhaps last season, or even at the start of this season, he’d have seen that as a demotion and it might’ve changed the way he approached it. Right now though? He knows his value.

“I know I belong,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing, self belief.”

Now, an injury to Moore has re-opened up that spot and Turcotte was the obvious solution. His game seems to complement what Kopitar and Kempe bring and he’s simply trying to play his game and do what he knows he can.

“I’ve had a good amount of experience with them this year and I feel really good about where my game’s at and confident, I was just trying to play my game,” Turcotte said. “I try to do that with everyone I play with, that’s my mindset and I think it’s been working out for me.”

Good stuff.

Turcotte moving up then opened up a spot on the fourth line, where he had been playing with Samuel Helenius. Stepping in was forward Akil Thomas, who Jim Hiller complemented after the game for his performance during his debut.

Hiller took it a step further in Pittsburgh, highlighting Thomas for his team-first attitude and approach. Upon coming back from an injury, Thomas was not immediately inserted into the lineup. It took three games out before Moore’s injury opened up the spot for Thomas. He certainly delivered on night one.

“Akil Thomas coming in last game a guy who sat out and it’s no fun, he’s out there working with DJ for three weeks, by himself and then he comes in and gives us that game,” Hiller said. For me, that’s team. He came in with a great attitude and had a positive impact on the game.”

Often times, players who step into the lineup try to do one thing – keep it simple.

Thomas’ game, generally speaking, isn’t all that complex, but he’s got playmaking ability in him as well. That was on display on Saturday in New York.

He called his attitude coming in a “good frustration”.

Frustrated that he hadn’t played in the previous three games coming in, despite being healthy, but good in the way that he channeled it. He highlighted the skates he was putting in, day in and day out, as being targeted towards making him better and keeping himself ready to go when his number was called. When it was, he delivered.

“Watching games is frustrating, you want to play, so I just feel like I had a bunch of good frustration built up inside,” he said. “I just wanted to help as much as possible and I think I did a decent job with that. So, pretty happy with the game the other night.”

The Kings put that game away with three goals in a span of 2:18 early in the second period, with Thomas providing the facilitation on the goal that ultimately chased New York starting goaltender Igor Shesterkin from the game. Thomas first moved across the ice to assist on the zone entry, going from his right wing position to the left, taking a pass from Phillip Danault to gain the blue line with possession. He then sent a powerful backhanded assist to find the open man in the slot, defenseman Brandt Clarke, who eventually worked it back to Danault for the goal that essentially put the game away.

Thomas said he actually didn’t see Clarke until the last minute. He was originally going to dump the puck in but saw the defenseman’s stick blade charging up ice and decided to try and make a play. Split-second reaction and it directly led to a goal.

All in all, just a really strong showing for Thomas. He’ll play again tonight against the Penguins and look to continue building momentum.

3 To Watch For –
– Tonight in Pittsburgh, the two best players from the 2005 NHL Draft square off in what will be one of the final times we’ll see them on the ice together.

Sidney Crosby and Anze Kopitar, numbers one and two in games played, goals, assists and points in that draft class, will be on opposite sides of the ice this evening. More likely than not, we’ll see a lot of them on the ice against each other, too.

Over the last three seasons, Crosby has been the Pittsburgh forward Kopitar has seen the most time on ice against at 28:07 in 5-on-5 situations. A healthy dose of Evgeni Malkin as well, in the 25-minute range, another legend of the game in his own right. Still, when 11 and 87 hit the ice, two of the all-time great, playing their own brand of hockey individually, it’s always a treat.

“There’s two of the league’s best players at the age they are is unreal,” Hiller said. “Tip of the cap to those two players.”

– On the current stretch of seven wins from eight games played, defenseman Joel Edmundson is +11.

On the ice for 12 goals for, compared to just one against.

“I guess I’m just scoring more than I’m allowing,” he said, with a laugh.

Not one for self accolades, Edmundson credited the team’s defensive approach and attitude for simply being a team that doesn’t allow a ton defensively. It’s a long season, as he was quick to point out, and there will be stretches up and stretches down. Right now, the puck is staying out of the net and he’s been a big part of the reason why, whether he’d admit it or not.

“Usually that just goes in waves throughout the season, it’s a long season,” he added. “I think just defensively, we’re not allowing too much and then when we do, our goalies are there to save us.”

– Lastly, I hopped on Kings of the Podcast last night. Enjoyed my time on the program, a listen HERE would be appreciated, if you’ve got nothing better going on!

Kings and Penguins, a 4 PM puck drop Pacific time as the Kings round the corner on this long trip!