1/4 Preview – 1,000 Impending For Lewis + Today’s Roster Moves, 11/7 vs. 12/6, Spence Raises Level

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (22-10-5) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (20-13-2)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Saturday, January 4 @ 6:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Fan Duel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings are back in action for a Saturday-evening showdown with Tampa Bay, their fourth game on a five-game homestand.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings and Lightning split the season series in 2023-24, with each team winning in overtime on home ice.

Forward Trevor Moore led the Kings with three points (1-2-3) against Tampa Bay last season, while forwards Adrian Kempe (1-1-2) and Anze Kopitar (0-2-2) each collected two points. Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov scored the game-winning goal in overtime when these teams met in Los Angeles back in March.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of tonight’s game against Tampa Bay.

While unconfirmed, Darcy Kuemper feels like the likely starter in net tonight for the Kings, coming off his shutout win over New Jersey on Wednesday. Kuemper has a lifetime record of 5-4-0, with a .907 save percentage and a 2.76 goals-against average. Should the Kings turn to David Rittich, who defeated Philadelphia last weekend, he’s 0-2-1 lifetime with a .876 SV% and a 4.22 GAA in his career versus Tampa Bay.

For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up during yesterday’s practice –

Turcotte – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Jeannot
Fiala – Danault – Laferriere
Moore – Helenius – Lewis
Thomas – Kaliyev
(Lee)

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

Kuemper / Rittich

There were two major questions for tonight’s lineup and both centered around a man named Trevor.

Forwards Trevor Lewis and Trevor Moore were both “very close” to a lineup return, per Jim Hiller yesterday, but he did not confirm that either player would play in tonight’s game. This morning’s roster moves seem to do that, with Moore and Lewis both activated to the active roster, paving the way for both to play tonight. Forward Andre Lee won’t play, as he’s been assigned to the AHL, while defenseman Kyle Burroughs also is not expected to play, around the birth of his first child. Congrats to the Burroughs family!

The Kings will have to make one additional roster move between today and Wednesday versus Calgary, with Burroughs likely back for that game, but we’ll cross that bridge when the time comes.

Now there is one question, which is do the Kings stick with an 11/7 alignment or revert to 12/6

More on Lewis specifically below, as he prepares for his 1,000th career NHL game, as well as the lineup conversation.

LIGHTNING VITALS: Tampa Bay completes a back-to-back set this afternoon against the Kings, after losing 3-2 yesterday in Anaheim.

Per Gabby Shirley of FanDuel Sports Florida, here’s how the Lightning lined up last time out against San Jose –

a look at the #Bolts lines and D pairings from warmups:

Guentzel – Point – Kucherov
Hagel – Cirelli – Geekie
Goncalves – Paul – Chaffee
Girgensons – Glendening – Eyssimont

Hedman – Raddysh
McDonagh – Cernak
Lilleberg – Perbix

🥅 Vasilevskiy

— Gabby Shirley (@Gabby_Shirley_) January 3, 2025

Former Kings draft picks Mikey Eyssimont and Erik Cernak are both included in the above lineup and could feature in tonight’s game as well.

Defenseman Victor Hedman has led the Lightning with four goals and six points against the Kings over the last three seasons. Throughout his career, Hedman has 15 points (7-8-21) from 21 games played against the Kings including 10 points (4-6-10) from nine games played in Los Angeles.

Storyline Of The Day – 1,000 Miles
Looks like a special night ahead for forward Trevor Lewis.

Lewis was on track to play in his 1,000th NHL game on December, with a ceremony all but scheduled for December 7. Family, friends, former teammates were in town or scheduled to be in town, as the veteran forward approached the milestone. Then, injury struck and plans were changed. In Game 999, Lewis suffered a lower-body injury that ended his night early and eventually forced him out of action until 2025.

“It was definitely tough timing,” he admitted. “You know in the back of your head what game you’re at and all of that. I actually felt worse for my wife, she had a lot of planning done. It was tough timing, but fortunately it was able to not be too serious and I’ll get a chance to do it again.”

Such is life.

It’s not the first bit of adversity that a player like Lewis has gone through throughout his career. Lewis is a guy who has battled for just about everything he’s gotten in his career. He’s gotten to this point by finding a role and playing to it, willing his way into lineups and staying there with his commitment, his tenacity and his intensity. His career high in goals is 14. 26 in points. But his game has always been about so much more than those two numbers, with Head Coach Jim Hiller weighing in on exactly why Lewis has not just gotten to the NHL but stayed in the NHL for as long as he has.

Jim Hiller on Trevor Lewis
Players that can combine an unbelievable amount of personal character with physical attributes, there will always be a place for those guys. Maybe when they’re not as fast, not as skilled, as those drop off, but there’ll always be a place for them somewhere on a team. You’ll see that on a good team, but you also see it on teams that are starting to re-establish themselves with young players, they want that guy because it’s so difficult, it’s so challenging mentally the game, and I think now more than ever with social media, that those people who are rock solid characters – some people use the word pros – and when I think of Trevor, that’s just it. He’s just a rock in a stormy sea of emotions and that reflects not just only on him, but onto his teammates as well. That’s why those guys, coaches love them, and they never go away. They’ll scratch and claw forever to stay in, because that’s their heart and passion for the game.

I’m sure we’ll hear from Lewis after tonight’s game. I’m sure that he will take the time to reflect then.

He said that his focus for now has simply been recovery. Game 999 being his cut off point could have given him the chance to do that but he really spent most of his time on the recovery efforts.

“I think I was just focused on recovering and getting back,” Lewis added. “I felt like I was playing pretty well, so I just tried to stay in that mindset of like you’re playing, when you’re watching games. I was just focused on coming back.”

Still, while he maybe hasn’t reflected on it just yet, he certainly will. Congratulations to a consummate professional on a pretty great milestone. More from, and about, Lewis in the coming days.

3 To Watch For –
– Interested to see if today’s roster moves mean the Kings will go 12/6 or 11/7.

During practice yesterday, here is how the forwards aligned –

Kings with 15F and 8D on the ice today. Everyone in full-contact jerseys.

Top three forward lines are the same, bottom two are showing –

Moore – Helenius – Lewis
Lee – Thomas – Kaliyev

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) January 3, 2025

It will be interesting, with both Trevor Lewis and Trevor Moore expected to play, how the Kings choose to play it. Does Helenius stay in the lineup at center, pushing the Kings back to the standard 12/6 approach for the first time since November 30? Or, do the Kings roll with the 11/7 again, which would mean Andreas Englund playing his first game since November 11 in Calgary? I suppose that’s the one, lingering question.

Either way, it’s something we haven’t seen since November. Expecting to hear from Jim Hiller today before the game, so we should get final confirmation then.

– Earlier this week, Jim Hiller spoke highly about the way Jordan Spence has played of late. Both Hiller and Spence have said candidly that his start to the season was not to his expected level.

“He’s really improved. He started the season really poorly, let’s be honest, he knows that too and he took some time to find his game. I think playing with Mo has really helped him, they played a lot together, that was the time when Spenny was still trying to get his game together. He’s probably played less minutes, but he played with Mo, just got back to being solid and I think he’s elevated now. Not only did he get his form back, but I think he’s pushed it up, and it’s been really important for us.”

Of late, Spence seems to have really found his way.

Over the last 15 games, no Kings player has been on the ice for more goals for than Spence. In total, he’s been on for 15 goals scored, compared to just six against. He’s only been a minus in a game once in that stretch and he does have six assists over his last seven games as well. Spence first got back to being solid and he’s now starting to build on that, with the confidence to play his game continuing to grow after finding that base.

“Personally for me, I think it’s been improving game by game and I don’t want to change that,” Spence said. “For me, I just need to find the role that I have to do, and if I do that, I think we’re gonna have success with our team and personally, for myself.”

– Lastly, big game in Kings prospect land also coming up today. Defenseman Jakub Dvorak and Team Czechia against goaltender Hampton Slukynsky and Team USA. Although the entire narrative over the last 48 hours has surrounded Team Canada’s elimination against the hands of Dvorak’s Czechia, believe it or not, the tournament will continue as scheduled. Just not sure if it will be televised in the Great White North.

4:30 PM puck drop today for the Czechia/United States game. Winner advances to tomorrow’s gold-medal game against the winner of Finland/Sweden. Loser will play in the bronze-medal game against the loser of that matchup.