Practice Report 10/2 – “Extensive” video review after Colorado + Discipline & PK Focus, Lineup Decisions, “A” Plan

After Wednesday’s defeat in Colorado, Peter Laviolette said that the footage from that game would certainly be used when the team got back to the rink on Friday.

In the locker room today, players spoke about seeing a good chunk of video before practice, centering on a number of different topics. Comes with the territory after surrendering eight goals in Game 1. It felt as if there was more video than usual, with a variety of different focal points.

How would Laviolette describe it?

“Extensive, is that the word you said? Yeah. Probably a good word for it.”

There’s no panic after a defeat in Game 1. The Kings are the oldest team in the NHL and that probably helps with that. Still, there are numerous areas the Kings wanted to address after the season-opening loss in Colorado and there was a lot of time spent today, before practice, on getting to it.

“There’s lots of things that we can clean up,” Laviolette said. “From what we do in the offensive zone when we don’t have the puck, line rushes against, penalties. There’s lots of things, I think the penalty kill [also]. Lots of areas where we can get better at and improve.”

The three largest focal points in the locker room we heard today – penalty kill, discipline and defensive reads 5-on-5.

All would make sense.

On the defensive side of things, eight goals against feels like a natural starting point. You can break down the eight into four on the penalty kill and four at 5-on-5, although one of the even-strength goals was a product of the Kings power play, as it came on a 2-on-1 rush, stemming from a wayward shot at the other end of the ice.

I didn’t think the team’s 5-on-5 defending was all that poor, overall, but there were some chances off the rush that either went in the back of the net or resulted in a save, but the chance was there nonetheless. So, the penalty kill was a focus, but the video session today didn’t ignore the rest of it either.

“We touched up on the kill and then we touched up on some 5-on-5 stuff,” defenseman Cody Ceci said. “We gave up a little too much off the rush, just outnumbered in a few situations.”

Rush offense did directly lead to a couple of Colorado goals and especially early in the game, a few good chances that resulted in Darcy Kuemper saves. Per SportLOGIQ No team in the NHL last season generated more shots from the slot, off the rush, than Colorado. Also per SportLOGIQ, San Jose had 11 shots from the slot, off the rush, on Thursday against Florida. Only New Jersey had more in a season opener. Certainly a focal point, against a team that can attack in that way like the Avalanche did.

The discipline was certainly a cause for concern.

Laviolette didn’t feel that there was a theme with the minors. On past occasions, we’ve seen coaches comment on seeing too many stick infractions or too many penalties in the offensive zone. One game might be too short a sample size to assess that but the number of minors was far too high. Colorado doesn’t need a numbers advantage on top of the personnel advantages already on the table.

The message was received, though, that the overall number of penalties has to drop.

“I think the biggest takeaway was discipline, you can’t really give those guys many opportunities on the power play with the caliber of guys they have, so I think that’s something that we’re going to have to work on,” forward Alex Laferriere added. “I think if we can get better at that, I think our 5-on-5 play spoke for itself there and we’re going to have chances to win a lot of games if we stay out of the box.”

After the video session, the Kings hit the ice for what felt a bit more spirited and intensive than practices we’ve seen the days before games in past seasons. I would add longer into that mix as well. I think in past years, the skates the day before a game might have been a little shorter, with maybe a little less skating. Today’s practice had some skating involved, including a couple of short-area sprints, as well as some competitive 2-on-2 situations towards the end of practice.

As has been the case, both power play and penalty kill got some on-ice work, as you’d expect after the struggles in Denver.

I don’t believe that the Kings took line rushes, so I don’t have a formal alignment for you, but the jersey colors we saw the players wearing would point to no major changes from the Colorado game, which is shown below for reference.

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

Panarin – Byfield – Kempe
Zuccarello – Turcotte – Laferriere
Moore – Laughton – Haula
Lee – Helenius – Armia

Dumoulin – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Anderson – Ceci

Kuemper
Forsberg

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 1, 2026

That leads us to a pair of lineup decisions that Laviolette and the coaching staff need to make. Forward Corey Perry and Erik Gustafsson were both on the ice, as they have been, and both skated with the second power-play unit, as they have. That isn’t new. We’ve seen both players mixed into that group throughout training camp and now into the regular season. Is that a sign we could see them play tomorrow?

“They’ve been getting it pretty consistently, both of them, and everybody’s available,” Laviolette said. “There’s a chance that they can play. We’re going through that and I haven’t talked to the players yet.”

Perry has taken repetitions with the fourth line throughout training camp and we’ve seen Gustafsson in a few different places, with different partners, on the blueline. I think that today’s skate showed where they could feature if they did play, with Perry in the same color jersey as the fourth line from Game 1 and Gustafsson in the same color as Brandt Clarke and Joel Edmundson. We’ll get a better sense tomorrow if either plays, but nothing to report at this time.

Additional Notes
– One player who had a pretty good night in Colorado?

Cody Ceci.

Finished up with an assist and a +3 rating. Any time your team gives up eight goals and you’re +3, you probably did something right. Ceci was the only Kings player on the ice for three goals for in the game against the Avalanche and he wasn’t on the ice for any of the even-strength goals against. Looking a layer deeper, no Kings player was on the ice for more shot attempts or shots on goal for than Ceci, who seemed to adapt decently to what was being asked of him. Noticed a few defensive close outs, with physicality, as well.

Credit where credit is due. On a night when many struggled, thought Ceci was one who showed well of himself.

– FWIW, the players on the second power-play unit, as noted above, were Gustafsson, Perry, Laferriere, Drew Doughty and Alex Turcotte.

I think it’s fair to say that if they’re in the lineup, the Kings see Perry and Gustafsson as power-play players. IF they are in the lineup is the question, though. As Laviolette indicated, both are an option tomorrow, but he’s not there just yet. Good to hear on Perry, who did miss a week or so of practices, that he is an option to play if the Kings decide to use him tomorrow. Gustafsson is certainly ready.

Look for tomorrow’s skate for a better idea of that evening’s lineup.

– Lastly, Laviolette said that the Kings will utilize a five-game rotation for their alternate captains this season.

Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe wore the letters in Colorado and will continue to do so for the first five games on the schedule, which takes us through October 13 against Edmonton. Then, Artemi Panarin will rotate in for Games 6 through 10, with one of Kempe or Anderson. Then it’ll flip. So, those three players will eventually wind up wearing letters for 10 consecutive games, before going five without.

Off to San Jose! The Kings touched down in Northern California this afternoon and will take on the Sharks tomorrow evening at SAP Center. More to come tomorrow as the team looks to even their record in the early days of the regular season.