3/10 Preview – Doughty “day-to-day”, Spence/Moverare in + Maatta on mentoring & home/road split

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (32-19-7) vs. San Jose Sharks (24-25-7)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Thursday, March 10 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio (Pre-Game @ 7) – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings are finally back on home ice this evening, as they begin a stretch of eight of their next 10 games at Crypto.com Arena, starting tonight versus San Jose.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: San Jose won the only meeting of the season between these teams, a 6-2 final back in mid-January at SAP Center. In that game, the Kings got a goal from Anze Kopitar, though everyone else on the scoresheet from that day is currently injured. The Kings and Sharks will faceoff three times over the next eight days, concluding their season series.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held an optional morning skate today, with around two thirds of the group on the ice in El Segundo.

Todd McLellan reinforced yesterday that both goaltenders will play down the stretch, with the Kings playing such a compact schedule. With that being said, Jonathan Quick did not skate this morning, making him tonight’s expected starter against San Jose. Quick brings with him an 18-15-7 career record versus San Jose, along with a .904 save percentage and a 2.65 goals-against average.

In terms of the skaters, the Kings will make at least two changes this evening, with defenseman Mikey Anderson out “week-to-week” and Drew Doughty out “day-to-day”, both per Todd McLellan. Doughty was a limited participant in practice yesterday and morning skate today, while Anderson has not skated.

The Kings have defenseman Jacob Moverare and Jordan Spence as options to check in, with Spence recalled from AHL-Ontario yesterday as Anderson was placed on injured reserve. Both defensemen are expected to play this evening.

At forward, McLellan said that the Kings will make a final decision on their forwards after warmups, with the team having 13 available to them. Lias Andersson is an option to check in after he was activated from injured reserve on Tuesday. The Kings did do some in-game line shuffling in Boston on Monday, though all 12 forwards from that game appear to be healthy.

Here is how the team aligned yesterday during practice –

Kaliyev – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Athanasiou
Iafallo – Byfield – Brown
Grundstrom – Lizotte – Anderson-Dolan – Andersson

Maatta – Roy
Bjornfot – Durzi
Moverare – Spence

Quick
Petersen

Regarding the pairings, McLellan did not confirm whether or not Moverare and Spence will skate together, or if each might feature with a more veteran partner. To line rushes we go.

SHARKS VITALS: The Sharks enter tonight’s game in a tough stretch, one that has seen them lose 11 of their last 13 games to drop below the .500 mark for the first time this season.

Before he suffered an injury, goaltender James Reimer had started 12 consecutive games, with solid numbers despite the losing stretch. In his absence, goaltender Zachary Sawchenko is set to make just his sixth career NHL appearance this evening and his second career start. Sawchenko brings with him a 0-1-1 record, a .908 save percentage and a 3.17 goals-against average.

Per Corey Masisak, San Jose could have the quartet of Erik Karlsson, Jacob Middleton, Jaycob Megna and Jonathan Dahlen at its disposal for this evening’s game in Los Angeles. With that in mind, here’s how the Sharks aligned during yesterday’s practice –

Sharks at practice (updated):

Meier-Couture-Dahlen
Barabanov-Hertl-Balcers
Cogliano-Bonino-Nieto-Viel
Gadjovich-Reedy-Gregor-Dzingel

Megna-Burns
Merkley-Karlsson
Vlasic-Meloche

Hill/Sawchenko/Stalock

— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) March 9, 2022

None of the aforementioned four players dressed in San Jose’s most recent game against Anaheim, so they will need to make some moves to get them in. Additionally, both regular goaltenders – Adin Hill and James Reimer – are on injured reserve, in addition to forward Kevin Labanc and defensemen Mario Ferraro and Nikolai Knyzhov.

Notes –

Swinging For The Spences
Several times this season, when Todd McLellan has been asked about the AHL, or the Ontario Reign, or an individual player playing in Ontario, he’s brought up the name Jordan Spence, usually unprompted.

Today, that name was prompted.

Spence is set to make his NHL debut this evening for the Kings, with a spot opened up by injuries to both Mikey Anderson and Drew Doughty, costing both tonight’s game versus San Jose.

Spence’s production at the AHL level has been staggering, with 42 points (4-38-42) from 46 games played. Spence is the league’s second-highest scoring defenseman and ranks fifth in assist amongst ALL players, regardless of position. When looking exclusively at rookies, just three players have more points this season, and all three of those players are forwards. Incredibly impressive, and tonight he gets his first shot at the next level.

“I wouldn’t even use the word good, I would use the word great,” McLellan said this morning of Spence’s rookie season. “He’s having a great season down there, for a rookie defenseman, a guy that had to adapt, size-wise, to pro hockey, he’s done a really good job of it. He’s been able to run the power play, he’s been able to create offense down there without sacrificing any of his defensive responsibilities. Having a tremendous season, deserves an opportunity to play his first, and maybe more games in the league.”

The matter of performance made Spence a worthy choice for promotion, but the player exiting the lineup factored in as well. With Anderson on injured reserve, it was always the most natural fit for Jacob Moverare to step in, as a solid, steady defenseman who can play on the penalty kill. The most like-for-like Anderson comparable who is NHL ready in the system.

When it came to Doughty, however, the player exiting is a puck-mover, a point-producer, a PP1 player. While he’s obviously elite at the defensive end of the ice as well, the Kings have others with that skill set at their disposal. Spence was the most natural fit, in McLellan’s words, to fill some of Doughty’s other characteristics, and thus he is tonight’s choice to play.

“Well, we lost a power-play guy, a quarterback, we lost a puck mover and those are two of his best attributes in the American League right now,” McLellan said. “On Jordan, looking at the beginning of his season, there were some nights he wasn’t even dressing because they had so many D down there. Now, he’s their go-to guy in those situations, so we feel he could replace what we’ve lost. Yesterday, I said we had a number of different ingredients available to us at this position and we’ve chosen these ingredients, at least for today.”

McLellan went on to confirm that Spence will run the second power-play unit, with Sean Durzi elevated to the first unit. From yesterday’s practice, Arthur Kaliyev is also expected to join PP1, alongside Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe and Alex Iafallo, while Spence will skate with Phillip Danault, Trevor Moore, Andreas Athanasiou and Dustin Brown on PP2.

Mentoring Maatta
Without Drew Doughty tonight, with Alex Edler not expected back for at least a couple of weeks, it’s a group of young bucks on the blueline for the Kings this evening.

Spence has zero NHL games played. Moverare has 3. Sean Durzi has fewer than 50 and, although he ranks sixth in the 2019 NHL Draft in games played, Tobias Bjornfot has fewer than 100.

That leaves Olli Maatta, a proven performer with two rings and more than 500 career NHL games, and Matt Roy, who is mature and wise beyond his years, though he is approaching just his 200th career game later this month. In that role, Maatta admitted he’s taken on a bit more of a mentorship state this season, but he also commended the younger players coming in as being prepared differently than they used to be. Perhaps, from a mental side, there’s less needed in today’s younger player.

“Yes and no, I think the young guys we get in, it’s impressive how mature they are,” Maatta said this morning. “They know the deal pretty well, they take care of themselves as well as I take care of myself. I remember being 19 myself and it’s different, it feels like they just know the deal, like nothing fazes them.”

When asked about how he might address a player making his NHL debut, as Jordan Spence is tonight, Maatta said that first, to make sure that young player enjoys the moment. You only get one debut, after all. From there, though, it’s about playing your game and doing the things that got you to this point.

Don’t overthink, just play.

“To enjoy it, to be honest,” Maatta said. “Everybody remembers their first game, how it feels. Just go out there and play, not overthink, I think that goes for every game. It just has to come from instinct, if you start overthinking, hesitating, the game is so fast you lose a little bit of time and now you’re in trouble.”

McLellan wasn’t tipping his hand this morning on how he might choose to align the defensive pairs. He did note that, in an ideal situation, you don’t always want two rookies playing together, though opting not to do so might break up the effective duo of Roy and Maatta. There could be some mixing and matching on the backend, used to get those veteran guys more minutes, or it could be a scenario of letting Moverare and Spence play together, as they have quite a bit in Ontario this season.

Regardless of pairings though, the veteran impact that a Maatta, or a Roy, has will be crucial in getting through games that Doughty or Anderson will miss.

Heading Home
It’s been an uneven disparity for the LA Kings over the last extended stretch of time, with 16 of 21 games coming away from Los Angeles. In the five games played on home ice, the Kings are just 1-4-0. In the 16 games played in opposing buildings, the Kings are 12-2-2.

Those figures usually are a better-written narrative than they are meaningful of anything in the grand scheme of things. The Kings had homestands of 5-2-0 and 4-1-0 earlier this season and are two games over the .500 mark in total this season on home ice. But, with just those five home games over the last 55 days, it’s been up to the Kings to build momentum on the road, which they have certainly done, as the league’s second-best road team so far this season.

That road stretch balanced out a home-heavy start, with the Kings now with two more games played on the road than at home. The scene has shifted to Crypto.com Arena, where the Kings will play eight of their next 10 at home, the last extended run of games on home ice this season.

“I think we’ve played 16 of our last 21 on the road, so we haven’t found any rhythm on home ice, for a long, long time,” Todd McLellan said yesterday. “We need to re-establish that again coming up, and that probably answers both ends of the question. It’s time to get our game going here, we’ve got some pretty good opponents coming up here and we’ll have to be at the top of our game to have success.”

McLellan said that there is no “secret recipe” to the team’s road success. He’s pointed to checking well, he’s pointed to the Kings playing to their identity, he’s pointed to using four lines and six defensemen effectively, he’s pointed to quality goaltending.

Nothing in that list that can’t also be executed at home.

“You don’t really approach a game differently if you’re at home or on the road,” Maatta said. “You try to play the same way, I don’t know if there’s something you don’t notice that might affect it, but I can’t tell [any differences].”

As McLellan put it simply, the team should be playing that way and doing those things regardless of where the game takes place. An important stretch of turning should into execution starts tonight against San Jose.

Kings and Sharks, first of three in eight days, tonight at 7:30 from DTLA!