Practice 10/14 – Off To Minny! Getting on the road, today’s alignment, Arvidsson skates

We’re off to Minnesota, Insiders!

The Kings hit the ice this morning for practice in El Segundo before heading off to the airport to begin the first roadtrip of the season. The games are coming hot and heavy on this trip, with the Kings set to play five games in eight nights, beginning tomorrow evening in Minnesota against the Wild. The Kings will also visit Detroit, Nashville, Pittsburgh and Washington on this trip, with four of those five teams in the postseason last year, and the fifth a team that added at the NHL level in the offseason.

Perhaps hitting the road could be a good thing for the Kings.

Two difficult losses here at home to begin the season and being on the road offers the Kings a chance to get away as a group. The first opportunity for things like team dinners, bonding away from the rink and a different routine are all doable on the road and that could be just what the Kings need to get going.

“We’ve got 80 left and 41 of them are going to be on the road so it’s really early in the year, get out on the road while we’re fresh, bond a little bit,” McLellan said. “It sounds like a cliche, coaches use that all the time, but it’ll be good for us to get away. The one thing that we don’t get and that we do need is a lot of practice time on this trip, but that’s the way it goes.”

The second part of that quote is unique – an eight day trip with just one true practice day is definitely a bit strange. The Kings are looking to maximize pratice time early in the season, but they’ll now have a stretch where they don’t get much of it at all.

The players tended to agree with the second part, however. Phillip Danault said after last night’s game that an early-season trip could be “much needed” with a chance to get to know a new face like Kevin Fiala, or to spend more time with teammates he may not know as well.

Speaking with Trevor Moore and Brendan Lemieux after today’s practice, both agreed with the notion.

Moore – Yeah, I think so. When you’re on the road, it’s only hockey and it’s just the guys and hockey, which is good. You can go to dinner most nights on the road and like I said, it’s just the guys, so it’s a good time to get to know people and it’s just nice to spend time together. Especially after a couple losses, I think it can turn things around for us.

Lemieux – Yeah, definitely. We spend enough time in LA, I spent the whole offseason here, so it’s good to get out and get on the road and be with the guys. I think just spending time together on the plane, on buses and whatnot, it’ll be good. Get out for some dinners, enjoy ourselves a little bit, just us as a group, away from the families and whatnot. It’ll be fun.

It’s good talk, and as Danault added last night, it’s time for the Kings to put it into practice, as well. First crack comes in a spot that’s given the Kings some trouble in Minnesota, with losses in eight of their last nine in St. Paul, but with a couple of native Minnesotans and former Wild forward Kevin Fiala coming back, a good chance to right the ship tomorrow night.

With that ahead, a quick look into today’s practice in El Segundo –

Gray: Arvidsson, Danault, Fiala, Kaliyev, Kempe, Kopitar, Moore
White: Anderson-Dolan, Byfield, Grundstrom, Iafallo, Lemieux, Lizotte, Vilardi
Defensemen: Anderson, Clarke, Doughty, Durzi, Edler, Roy, Walker
Goaltenders: Quick, Petersen

This wasn’t a practice necessarily based around line work, but a few observations –

– Viktor Arvidsson was back with the group today, after he missed the last two days, including last night’s game, with an illness. Should Arvidsson be ready to go tomorrow night, we’d assume he will skate in his usual spot with Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore. If not, Arthur Kaliyev was the other forward wearing a gray jersey, which could indicate one of a few things. We’ll see how things shake out during morning skate tomorrow, with the hope that Arvidsson will feature.

– On defense, it’s tough to truly predict anything beyond Mikey Anderson and Drew Doughty on the top defensive pairing with seven players rotating through drills. A couple of observations saw Brandt Clarke and Alex Edler together on one rush while Sean Durzi took some runs with Matt Roy, but we saw Durzi and Sean Walker showing in different spots and even Anderson and Doughty with different partners due to the odd number. With McLellan’s praise for Clarke yesterday evening, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him remain in the lineup, with decisions to be made around that. At the right time, Durzi will for sure get another opportunity and with he, Doughty and Walker all coming off injuries, we’ll see how the Kings opt to manage those players, if at all needed.

– The goaltenders were in their usual positions: Quick in the near-side net, Petersen at the other end. Quick was the starter in each of the first two games this season and his performance has not dictated him giving up the net. That being said, the Kings have 5 games in 8 nights on the road, and Petersen will certainly make his season debut on this trip, with the assumption being he’ll play multiple games. It’s a big season for Petersen to continue to battle with Quick for starts and earn his own time in the net. He’s an important part of the Kings and when he and Quick were trading strong starts last season, the team was at its best. He’ll get a crack during this trip to showcase himself for that playing time soon.

– This trip is filled with homecomings, former teams and former Kings. The game tomorrow in Minnesota will see Mikey Anderson and Blake Lizotte play in front of friends and family, in addition to Fiala’s return. Matt Roy is a Michigan native and will play in Detroit after he missed last season’s game with COVID, while Fiala and Viktor Arvidsson will head back to Nashville together the following day. Pittsburgh will see Jeff Carter play against his former teammates, while Washington has former Kings forward Nic Dowd. More to follow on some of those storylines throughout the week.

Road coverage begins tomorrow morning with the game preview from Minnesota. Angeles Analysis with a few thoughts from the first two games coming up later tonight, along with a game recap from the Ontario Reign’s preseason debut this evening. Assuming plane Wifi cooperates, will be around the comments while on the flight and as always, thanks for reading!