1/27 Preview – Kings, McLellan Talk Reunion + Spence’s Zone Keeps, 6-on-5 vs 5-on-4, Dad’s Finale

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (26-14-6) @ Detroit Red Wings (23-21-5)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Monday, January 27 @ 4:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Little Caesars Arena – Detroit, MI
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings continue on their five-game trip this evening with a trip to Detroit to take on Todd McLellan and the Red Wings.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings skated to a 4-1 victory over Detroit on home ice back in November, with tonight’s game concluding the season series between the two clubs.

Forward Adrian Kempe scored twice in that game, while forward Trevor Lewis collected two assists. Throughout his NHL career, Kempe has scored nine goals from 13 games played against the Red Wings with a +8 rating.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings took a full-team skate yesterday afternoon and went with an optional skate today at Little Caesars Arena.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper was not on the ice for morning skate today, which points towards him as the projected starter in net tonight for the visitors. Kuemper has a 3-4-1 record throughout his career against the Red Wings, with a .907 save percentage and a 2.63 goals-against average.

For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up on Saturday evening in Columbus –

Not expecting any lineup changes tonight from the group we saw against the Blue Jackets, unless of course Drew Doughty is green-lit for tonight’s game. Not expecting it, but you never know.

The Kings welcomed back forward Alex Laferriere in that game and he nearly scored in his first game back, with his goal disallowed after a lengthy window was provided to the Blue Jackets to challenge for offsides.

Should the visitors look for any additional changes that are not related to Doughty, forward Akil Thomas is available along with defensemen Andreas Englund and Kyle Burroughs.

RED WINGS VITALS: Detroit has posted a record of 10-4-1 over its last 15 games, coinciding with the time Todd McLellan took over as the team’s Head Coach in late-December.

Per the Detroit team account, here’s how the Red Wings lined up last time out –

As of this morning, forward J.T. Compher is day-to-day and won’t play tonight. Forward Patrick Kane is also not expected to play. Forward Vladimir Tarasenko is questionable, while forward Tyler Motte is “good to go”.

Storyline Of The Day – The Toddfather Returns
The Kings will play against a Todd McLellan-coached for the first time tonight since he took over as the Head Coach of the Detroit Red Wings in December. The first time overall since March 24, 2018.

McLellan was behind the bench in Los Angeles for four seasons plus, beginning in 2019. After two seasons outside of the playoff picture, McLellan led the team to the postseason in 2022 and 2023, including a 104-point campaign during the 2022-23 season, one point shy of a franchise record.

While there certainly isn’t any animosity, it’ll still be a little bit different seeing McLellan and former Kings assistant coach Trent Yawney on the other bench.

Spoke with defenseman Mikey Anderson on McLellan and he said it’s interesting because the Kings know how McLellan coaches – his styles, systems and tendencies, so he’s interested to see how much of that shows up in the way Detroit plays. He also said the flip side of the coin is that McLellan knows the Kings players better than anyone. He knows how the Kings want to play and he knows how the majority of this team plays.

Jim Hiller seemed to agree, pointing this morning to the “familiarity” that naturally exists here. A team that knows a coach and a coach that knows a team.

Adrian Kempe admitted it would be a different type of game for similar reasons. Though McLellan has only been in Detroit for a month, Kempe said he can pick out certain things in the video that are his influence, for sure. It’s not the exact same style, but there are common threads. After all, no one would know those tendencies better than a long-time Kings player.

“It’s going to be different, for sure,” Kempe said. “Watching a lot of video, you can see that maybe they haven’t changed fully to the system that we played, but you can see some tendencies, things that we’ve done in the past. It’s going to be different, it’s going to be a fun challenge for us. Excited to play against my old coach.”

Kempe credited McLellan with helping advance his career when he was in Los Angeles, saying he had “a big impact on my career”, pointing to the consistency McLellan helped him to develop as a high-level player. He also pointed to McLellan’s positive influence in taking a team that was towards the bottom of the standings and bringing them into the postseason in 2022 and 2023, moving the group as a whole in the “right direction” in the years here was here.

For McLellan’s part, he smiled when seeing members of the Kings traveling contingent in his media availability this morning. He asked how everyone was doing with the fires back in Los Angeles. He also admitted it’s an odd situation, being on the Detroit bench against the team he was coaching on this day one year ago but he also understands the business.

He joked that he’s got experience in that situation before and “that’s not usually a good thing.” But all in all, I think he’s as excited for tonight as the Kings are.

“Some of the players, you’re mentoring and helping them grow and they’re wearing a different color than you now but that’s okay, that’s called sport,” McLellan said. “That’s called being competitive and they’re going to want to win just as bad as we’re going to want to win. That’s why it should be a real good game.”

Everyone is expecting a good game tonight. The Red Wings have surged back into the playoff mix in the Eastern Conference with their level of performance under McLellan. The Kings are in a playoff spot right now and although recent form has been up and down, they feel they’re still playing a strong brand of hockey, outside of the Pittsburgh loss.

I, for one, will be interested to see how it plays out. Should be a high-energy game tonight for sure.

3 To Watch For –
– It won’t show up on the stat sheet, but the Kings wouldn’t have tied the game in Columbus without the efforts of Jordan Spence on the 6-on-5 situation.

I rewatched the entire sequence this morning. Spence was directly responsible for holding the puck into the zone four separate times over the two minutes and four seconds that the Kings maintained the offensive zone.

Spence held the zone at the point on two occasions on clearances that were around waist level, ultimately gloving down the puck leading to Quinton Byfield’s game-tying goal. On the goal itself, Spence blocked down a clearance and quickly worked the puck to Adrian Kempe. A few passes later, Byfield whacks home a rebound from just outside the crease and the Kings tie the game.

“You’re just trying to do the best you can and just keep it in the zone,” Spence said. “For myself, I was just trying to do the best to keep the puck in the blue line and trying to give it to Kopi or someone and they’re going to make some plays. If you have a minute and a half, eventually something’s going to happen.”

Before that, he had another hold at the right point and forced two interceptions, winning a battle once cleanly and getting in the way just enough very early in the sequence so that Kempe could get the interception himself.

It’s the kind of contribution that often goes unnoticed. In this instance, it really shouldn’t and he deserves his credit.

– So the 6-on-5 went very well. That’s a man-up situation.

Are there things that the Kings can do that could potentially translate to a struggling power-play unit?

“There could be, yeah,” Hiller said. “A couple different things 6-on-5, that was a little bit different look for us than we’ve done historically, but they did a really good job on that. Spenny kept a couple in, I thought Kopi made some pretty good decisions there and then around the net, sooner or later, you get enough time, you’d like to get a goal. Took a couple minutes and finally we got that done.”

Hiller said he spoke with Anze Koptiar before yesterday’s practice and there was a pretty easy agreement. The Kings need to get more shots on goal on the power play.

The bench boss pointed to the lone 5-on-4 sequence the Kings had in Columbus and while the zone time was good, the Kings were not credited with a single shot attempt. It was a lot of possession, a lot of time with the puck, not enough to the net. In 2:04 played at 6-on-5, the Kings had seven shot attempts, including Byfield’s game-tying goal.

Hiller added that the power play had a separate meeting yesterday in Detroit to address getting more shots and, ideally, more shots on net. Keep it simple and go from there. Hopefully, although the situations are not identical, there is something to be taken from a very good sequence.

– Lastly, final game of the dad’s trip. Final chance of two for the Kings to get a win in front of their fathers.

“This is the last day and we want to finish out strong here and get this win, do it for them and send them home happy,” defenseman Brandt Clarke said.

The Kings certainly gave it their best in Columbus. On another night, that’s a trip-opening victory. It wasn’t, though, on Saturday.

Last game was an unfortunate loss, but I think we had a really good game, strong in all zones,” Spence added. “It was unfortunate, but we have another game that we can prove ourselves and get a win for our dads. We’re excited to do that and [hopefully] have the same energy that we did a couple days ago in Columbus.”

Kings and Red Wings, with the visitors looking for two points in front of the dads. 4 PM local puck drop here in Detroit.

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