Kings go off-ice in Washington, McLellan & Doughty detail benefits of a different type of practice

Two days remaining on a road trip that has seen the Kings go 3-1-0 to this point. It’s been wild at times, it’s been strange at times and it certainly hasn’t been perfect. But, through it all, three wins from four games is three wins from four games and the Kings have a chance to make it four from five tomorrow, in a building that created a memorable victory a season ago.

“We can make this a great road trip, I think someone said good, but it’s a great road trip if we win four out of five,” Drew Doughty said today. “That’s a really good road trip. We’re not looking ahead to going home right now, we’ve got a big game against Washington and we didn’t perform well in the last game. We’re going to come out hot, that’s the plan anyway, and have a really good game.”

This has been a weird trip in terms of how it’s been structured.

We’re on the eighth day out of nine away from home and the Kings have their first practice day outside of Los Angeles. Typically, the NHL sees teams play approximately every other day, which allows for at least a get the legs moving type of practice in between games. The Kings practiced in LA last Friday, before they immediately departed for Minnesota. Games on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday surrounded off days on Sunday and Wednesday, before last night’s game in Pittsburgh. With only today as an option to get on the ice, but also managing the league’s heaviest game schedule in the early goings with six games already, the Kings had a choice to make today, while respecting the way the CBA mandates teams sculpt their schedules.

“It is [different] the way the schedule rolled out, the CBA mandates a certain amount of days off and we respect that for sure,” McLellan said. “The players need rest and we haven’t had a lot of practice time, so some would think ‘well why did you not skate today’. We just thought our energy would be a lot better by doing what we did. Using up the four days off in the short month of October, we had to pick some of these days on the road trip to give them days off and therefore it’s been a different type of trip. But, it has a chance to be a real successful trip if we play the way we can get the results we need.”

There were, believe it or not, some good things that we haven’t seen from the Kings yet this season in last night’s loss, especially in the first period. Shot volume and forechecking were prevalent throughout the first 12-15 minutes of the game, even after conceding the first goal. The second and third goals against, however, took a toll on the team’s mental state after one, going from 1-0 to 3-0, despite looking a lot more like last season’s team at times. There’s also the notion that, despite the puck possession and control of the flow of play, the Kings had just a couple of true scoring chances. As Anze Kopitar put it last night, there will be games like this throughout the course of a season and the Kings will do well to roll with the punches from ones like that and move forward.

Today, the team opted for a different type of practice, one with much larger goals and skates not required. The Kings took to a local park for a different type of practice, with some soccer and power-walk football played amongst the group. The field work complemented a video session with the full group. Though there are certainly on-ice areas that need attention, there’s also the need to manage the mental side of the team and to focus energy on the final day of a long trip. That day is tomorrow with a game against Washington.

“Well, we had two off-ice training sessions,” McLellan said. “We had one in the video room that was really important, where we addressed some of our shortcomings, things that we need to prepare and improve on. Then, we went outside, we got 15 or 20 minutes of a workout in, it’s a beautiful day here in Washington, there was a park nearby. I think sometimes that can really energize a group, especially at the back end of a trip. First trip of the year has been a long one and everything is about being ready to play tomorrow and being fresh. I think the guys enjoyed it, appreciated it and now the proof will be in the pudding to see if we have the energy we need in game five tomorrow.”

Speaking with one of the leaders of the team, defenseman Drew Doughty, he was inclined to agree.

As McLellan said, there were two portions to today’s off-ice practice, and both were important. The video component, coming off of a five-goal loss, was important as the Kings identified several areas for improvement. Doughty naturally focused on the defensive side of the coin when it came to the video, with

“We’re just not making good decisions, they’re very fixable things, very fixable,” he said. “We looked at them today, it’s actually kind of embarrassing how many things we’re messing up defensively. That’s not our M.O., that’s not how LA Kings hockey is played. We’re a good defensive team and yes, we want to improve on the offense that we have, but we need to get back to playing good defense.”

That’s not to say the video session was all negative, even if there are clear areas of focus for the Kings in these sessions.

McLellan once again highlighted the first period yesterday on the positive end of what was looked at, with other areas certainly highlighted the other way, as Doughty noted. A video day was important, to look through a wide array of things and not just from the Pittsburgh game, as trends have emerged in both directions.

“There are so many things [we focus on] and keep in mind. I think when you think about a meeting, you’re just thinking negative and it isn’t that way,” McLellan said. “We did a lot of things well in that first period yesterday as far as the forecheck goes and the tenacity on the forecheck, the ability to keep plays alive. It changed when we went down three, we lost a little bit of the belief and we can fix that. There are commonalities on both sides, special teams, power play, penalty kill faceoffs, 4-on-4 play, overtime, stuff we’ve dug into but not enough. That’ll happen when we get home.”

Doughty added that an analytical look at the video was the better play today for the group than a grinding practice, on Day 8 of a road trip with a game tomorrow.

It can maybe be hard to embrace that mindset from the outside, coming off of a five-goal defeat, but that’s where both the coaches and players landed today.

“When you’re playing a lot of games like this, we don’t have a lot of time off, so I think it’s important to get rest on practice days sometimes,” Doughty added. “Yes, practice is important too, to sharpen up, but we’ll be able to get pregame states in and I think it was a good day. We got to have some fun, still got a sweat in like we would have on the ice, it was just more fun.”

The Kings will be back on the ice tomorrow morning for a morning skate before the game against Washington. One would assume that tomorrow will likely be a full-team skate, as opposed to an optional twirl as the Kings used earlier in the season. Defenseman Alex Edler appears set to make his return for the Kings, with now two morning skates under his belt. No players, even Edler, took the ice for any more personalized work, but with the veteran now healthy and available, and the Kings in search of defensive solutions, it makes sense to get him back in versus Washington.

Preview to follow in the morning! Enjoy some photos from today’s workout below.