Practice 1/6 – “Preseason” Style Skate + Hiller on Edmundson, Burroughs on Fatherhood, Moore on 55/37 Line

Back at it, Insiders.

Jim Hiller called today’s practice a training camp-like skate. Kings went hard for nearly an hour. Probably one of their hardest practices of the season and certainly one of their hardest skates in recent memory. Over the last couple of weeks, the Kings haven’t had a ton of practice time, balancing heavily invested games with rest days and time off around the holidays.

Right now, it should be as well-rested as the Kings will be until the 4 Nations Break. As such, a hard practice today, following yesterday’s off day and tomorrow’s practice day.

“We’ve only practiced three times as a team in probably the last month, we’ve had three good practices, we had that long road trip, break over Christmas, so today was a chance just to get out,” Hiller said. “Practice was similar to our preseason practices, where we went 50 minutes hard, worked on a lot, got up and down the ice. It felt really good today, so I’m hoping that that’s just going to get us back reset mentally.”

Coming off a game on Saturday that the Kings won, but were not necessarily happy with, there were areas to work on.

Hiller and the Kings took today’s skate to try and work through some of those areas, which they’ve had to rely a lot on video to do in recent time. The Tampa Bay game was one in which the Kings knew they were outplayed, but found a way to get the job done anyways. For Hiller, while he’s enjoying these two days to get on-ice work done, one of his biggest coaching philosophies has always been energy levels, as he spoke to today.

The game is demanding and he believes players can benefit more from resting at times than on-ice practice.

“It’s always a balance and maybe different coaches have a different philosophy on it, but I’m always of the opinion that the most important thing that the players are is that they’re physically ready to play, as fresh as possible, because it’s such a demanding, physical game,” Hiller said. “When you do that, when you prioritize that over ‘let’s get on the ice, ‘et’s make sure we’re touching this up’ sometimes you lose a little bit in that area. You hope that just your overall energy, feel and vibe can compensate for some of those and it seems to have done that for us, fortunately, but you can’t keep that up forever and that’s why we practiced like that today.”

For the Kings today, in said hard practice, we saw 22 skaters on the ice.

First off, defenseman Joel Edmundson did not practice today, following a scary-looking collision during the win over Tampa Bay. Jim Hiller had the following update on Edmundson’s status –

“It’s not as bad as we thought so far. You got to be careful with it. I think everybody saw the replay once or twice and we’re concerned. It looks like he’s better than that replay showed, that’s for sure.”

So, no specifics beyond that, but Edmundson was not on the ice today. Sounds like, though, it could have been substantially worse, especially considering that Edmundson returned to the bench late in the third period on Saturday to support his teammates. He didn’t play, but he was there and that is something that gave a boost to those around him. Personally, sending the best well wishes his way. Collisions like that are scary, because of the way it happened isn’t something you see often. Hoping it is indeed less serious than it looked and that Edmundson is back to full health soon.

For today, here’s how the saw the Kings aligned –

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

Defensemen: Anderson, Burroughs, Clarke, Englund, Gavrikov, Moverare, Spence

Kuemper / Rittich

With the defensemen, the Kings had seven on the ice and I didn’t notice any specific pairings. Players rotated in and out among the pairs. Anderson/Gavrikov is certainly an item and that’s not changing. If Edmundson is out for maybe just a game, I’d imagine that we would see a heavy dose of that pairing on Wednesday versus Calgary. The Kings played Mikey Anderson 11:22 in the third period of Saturday’s win, while Gavrikov played just shy of 10 minutes. With three days off coming in and just five games in 15 days, now would be the time.

Beyond that group, Drew Doughty is still skating on his own in a red, non-contact jersey. Has yet to return to the main group, but his recovery by all signs is according to plan. Arthur Kaliyev, as noted earlier, was claimed off waivers by the New York Rangers and will head East to link up with his new club. Thus, everyone is accounted for.

Beyond that, if Edmundson isn’t able to go on Wednesday, it would be interesting to see how the Kings adjust.

I would expect, either way, that defenseman Kyle Burroughs would return to action against the Flames.

Burroughs missed the game on Saturday due to the birth of his first child, a monumental moment in any parent’s life. Burroughs shared today that his wife and son are both doing well and joked that his dogs have adopted the role of house guardians, as big pet siblings should. All well on that front.

“It felt good, felt good to get back and I’m definitely proud to be his dad, but also proud of my wife,” Burroughs said. “She did what all moms do, it’s magnificent, I’m so proud of her. Good to be back at the rink though.”

Burroughs is the second new father on the Kings blueline this season, after Edmundson and his wife, Ebony, welcomed their first child back in October.

While Edmundson was not on the ice today, Burroughs said he’s been in communication with his teammate dating back even into the summer. Both players live in Kelowna, British Columbia in the offseason and when both players joined the Kings, they talked about a number of things, including their expecting children. Pretty nice to have a teammate to lean on who just went through what Burroughs is experiencing now.

“We have leaned on him a lot,” Burroughs said. “Even up until [the birth] but it’s just a lot of excitement right now for our family, mom and baby are doing great.”

Burroughs said at the team’s Thanksgiving party, Edmundson handed him his crying son, to give him a quick early test. When it clicks, it clicks, Edmundson told him.

For Burroughs, as a first-time father, that’s exactly how it happened for he and his wife, Hayley.

“That’s what happened,” he added. “I don’t know what it was, but you figure it out and it’s been a lot of fun for sure.”

Congrats to the Burroughs family on their newest member!

Today’s skate was also the first practice for the Foegele/Byfield/Moore line, coming off of Moore’s first game back with the NHL club.

First things first, Moore felt good coming off his first game back from an upper-body injury that cost him eight games.

“I felt great,” Moore said today. “It kind of took a period to get my feet under me, but from the second period on, it felt nice.”

Moore spent the last month or so watching the Kings from above. The Byfield and Foegele pairing, with Tanner Jeannot as the third member, was an effective line. Moore enjoyed watching them play and, although he felt they didn’t necessarily have a productive game, the energy was good, the chances started to come as well as the game went along.

Certainly felt like something to build on.

“It was fun watching them when I was up top, those guys buzz and they’re finding it right now, they’re playing good, so it was cool to join them,” he added. “We didn’t get too much productivity, but we played against Kuch’s line and held them.”

Imagine we’ll see that line continue into Wednesday’s game as well, a natural landing spot for Moore. Assuming the Kings continue 11/7, Jeannot should get opportunities there as well. Important to remember his level in that spot too and the contributions he made. He’ll remain a part of things going forward as well.

That’s all for today, Insiders.

The Kings went to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles after practice today for a full-team visit. An annual trip that is extremely important. Will have a bit more on that tomorrow, along with any further updates as the Kings prepare for Calgary and the five-game roadtrip that follows!