11/1 Preview – No Morning Skate in Dallas + McLellan on Fiala, Doughty/Anderson Pairing, The Big 100

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (6-5-0) @ Dallas Stars (5-3-1)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR SEASON GAME
WHEN: Tuesday, November 1 @ 5:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: American Airlines Center – Dallas, TX
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings are in Dallas this evening to conclude a back-to-back set, with the first matchup of the season against the Stars.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings posted a 1-1-1 record against Dallas last season, with both losses coming in the games played in Texas. Forward Arthur Kaliyev led the way against the Stars with three goals and four points from three games played, while forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault each had multiple points.

KINGS VITALS: Considering the back-to-back, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in Dallas, opting instead for an off-ice workout.

With Jonathan Quick starting last night in St. Louis, the assumption is that the Kings will turn back to Cal Petersen tonight in Dallas. Petersen has made just one career start against the Stars, as he made 39 saves on 43 shots in a 4-3 defeat in Texas last season.

For reference, here is how the Kings lined up yesterday evening versus St. Louis –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

Kempe – Kopitar – Vilardi
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Fiala – Kupari – Grundstrom
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Walker

Quick
Petersen

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 31, 2022

Should the Kings opt to make any changes, forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan and defenseman Brandt Clarke were the healthy scratches yesterday and both could check in tonight if their number is called. Should Clarke play, it would mark his ninth NHL game of the season, one game away from activating year one of his entry-level contract. Forward Quinton Byfield remains out of action with an illness and did not accompany the team on the trip, at least to start.

STARS VITALS: Dallas has been out of action since Saturday, when they were defeated 6-3 by the New York Rangers. The Stars began the season with three straight wins, but have dropped three of their last four entering tonight’s action.

Goaltender Scott Wedgewood is expected to get the start tonight against the Kings, his fourth start of the season. Wedgewood brings a 1-2-0 career record against the Kings into tonight’s action, with a .884 save percentage and a 3.68 goals-against average. Although he never played for the Kings, Wedgewood was acquired by the organization via trade in 2018 and appeared in six games with the AHL’s Ontario Reign.

Per Matthew DeFranks of The Dallas Morning News, here’s how the Stars are expected to line up this evening versus the Kings……though with the note that defenseman Miro Heiskanen (upper-body injury) is questionable to play tonight with a decision to be made after warmups –

Expected Stars lineup tonight vs. LA:
Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
Marchment-Seguin-Gurianov
Benn-Johnston-Dellandrea
Faksa-Glendening-Kiviranta

Suter-Lundkvist
Lindell-Miller
Hanley-Hakanpää

Wedgewood
Murray

— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) November 1, 2022

Per Stars GM Jim Nill, goaltender Jake Oettinger is out for at least the week with a lower-body injury and will not be available tonight. Wedgewood is expected to be backed up by goaltender Matt Murray, who was signed to an NHL contract yesterday. Murray had been with the AHL’s Texas Stars on an AHL-only contract.

Notes –

TM Talks KF
Not a bad six periods for Kevin Fiala, if you check the stat sheets. It’s been a lot longer than that if you ask Todd McLellan.

“It’s not necessarily just the last couple of games, throughout training camp and for the most part, the regular season,” McLellan said this morning. “He’s had a knack for keeping plays alive, really good skill set, very good vision and we witnessed that last night. The game before, I think the combination of players that he’s with right now complement his skill set and as I said earlier, it balances everything out for our team right now. It’s a good look for us and it forces teams to think about how they want to play their D and their matchup forwards a little bit more. We’ll continue to do that until we have to make changes.”

Fiala led the Kings with three assists last night in the victory, a Fialaween special for those who celebrate privately.

The three assists last night came on the heels of a goal and an assist in the win over Toronto on Saturday, with four of his five points coming at even strength, playing now on a line with Rasmus Kupari and Carl Grundstrom. McLellan previously noted how Fiala has shown throughout his career an ability to be productive playing with “workers” or skill players. Kuapri and Grundstrom have elements of both, but their on-puck tenacity has always been noticeable. So far, it’s proven to be the right fit with Fiala.

“He’s got a lot of experience, he’s a proven point producer, an offensive player, so when you put them on that line, he should be the alpha, he should be the guy that takes control,” McLellan said. “That’s not to underscore what the other two do for him. The speed, the tenacity, the finish of both Kup and Grunny is a very complimentary pair to to Kevin skill set.”

The balance the production from this line has brought has been evident and as the Kings look to get that production from throughout their lineup, the changes made up front have been helpful towards that goal.

No Dought About It
Is that title a slight to Mikey Anderson?

Maybe, but the pun tracks.

The top defensive pairing of Drew Doughty and Mikey Anderson has led the way for the Kings over the last handful of games, coinciding with an improved overall effort defensively. When things weren’t going the Kings’ way, it was Doughty who was leading the charge with verbalizing the need to improve defensively.

“That’s our job as defensemen, that’s what we’re supposed to do, we’re supposed to defend the other team,” he said. “Yeah, we’re supposed to get some points too, be more offensive, but we need to get back to playing better defense, that’s what our weakness is right now. and we need to sharpen it up.”

That was between the games in Pittsburgh and in Washington. Since that point, Doughty and Anderson have led the way on the ice.

In part, that’s what they are expected to do, with Doughty the undisputed leader of the defensive corps, skating on an effective pairing with the defense-first Anderson. As the Kings have cleaned things up defensively, a few erratic periods aside, it’s been Anderson and Doughty leading the way.

“As expected, they should be leading the way, take care of what happens in our zone first and really our offense comes from how clean we break out,” McLellan said this morning. “If we can break out clean and get skating up ice, we save a lot of energy and we’re connected, weel good about ourselves heading that way. Mikey and Drew do a good job of initiating that a lot of times.”

Since the loss in Pittsburgh, Anderson and Doughty have averaged over 16 minutes per game together at 5-on-5. The pairing has not allowed an even-strength goal in that time, as compared to five goals for when they’ve been together on the ice. They’ve controlled nearly 63 percent of scoring chances and just shy of 60 percent of high-danger chances in that span.

Perhaps most importantly, they’ve done these things against high-quality opposition. Against Washington, the most common opponents were Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. Versus Tampa Bay it was Point and Kucherov. Winnipeg saw Schiefele and Connor, while Toronto was Matthews and Marner. Last night against the Blues, it was Tarasenko and Thomas. Getting quality defensive performances from your top defensive pairing, against the opposition’s best, has been a huge factor for the Kings as of late.

Double, Almost Triple, Hundo
Last night’s win saw a game centered around the number 100 from an individual milestone perspective. We saw it pop up twice, and it nearly happened three times.

Starting with the individuals, Gabe Vilardi played in his 100th career NHL game last night, as he became the 32nd player from the 2017 NHL Draft Class to skate in 100 games at the NHL level. Vilardi marked the occasion by continuing his scorching hot start to the season, with the game-opening goal in the first period and a primary assist in the second period on linemate Anze Kopitar’s goal.

Vilardi has amassed 49 points from 100 games to begin his career, the fourth most by a Kings player in his first 100 games over the last 25 years. Only Kopitar, Tyler Toffoli and Michael Cammalleri have amassed more. Vilardi also became the third skater in LA Kings history to score in his 100th career game, the first since Michael Amadio in 2019.

We almost saw Vilardi’s linemate, Adrian Kempe, join him in the 100 club yesterday evening. Kempe tallied his 99th career assist with the secondary helper on Vilardi’s game-opening goal, but will enter tonight’s action glued to that number. Kempe appeared in his 400th career NHL game on Saturday versus Toronto and is also four goals away from 100 for his career.

Additionally, Kings Head Coach Todd McLellan picked up his 100th win as Head Coach of the LA Kings in yesterday’s victory. McLellan became the eighth coach in franchise history to reach the milestone and the fifth-fastest to do so. As you might expect, he downplayed the individual mark with all focus coming on the game ahead versus Dallas.

In search of game number 101, win number 101 and assist number 100, the Kings are looking forward to tonight’s game.

Kings and Stars, coming up tonight from Dallas! Puck drops at 7:30 PM local, 5:30 PM Pacific.