11/9 Practice – Winning 1-0, McLellan on Quick & Power Play, Roy’s Growth & Consistency

Happy Hump Day, Insiders!

The Kings were back on the ice this morning in El Segundo in between home games. The current four-game homestand is off to a great start from a results standpoint, with a pair of victories and a very interesting beginning from a stylistic standpoint.

LA defeated the Florida Panthers on Saturday evening in a thrilling, back-and-forth, 5-4 contest before they grinded out a 1-0, tight-checking, blocked-shot filled contest against the Minnesota Wild. In many ways, it was important for the Kings to get a 1-0 victory. For a team that has struggled to keep pucks out of their net on a consistent basis, winning a game in that way is a solid step forward.

“For the last three weeks we’ve talked about can we win a game 2-1 or 1-0,” Todd McLellan said after the game. “We found a way to do it.”

Perhaps the mental side of things was the most important when it comes to last night’s win. The Kings have won games 7-6 and now twice 5-4 this season, but they have yet to win a game when scoring fewer than four goals.

That changed last night, as the Kings won by a 1-0 final.

“Yes, it is [important],” Todd McLellan said. “Trent Yawney always says don’t critique a win, a win’s a win, it goes in the bank and you need it and however you can make that deposit, make it. Over the long run, you have to play the right way to increase the account and part of doing that was being able to check our way to a win. I thought we did that last night and they were rewarded. When you question a group and they’re able to do it, it’s powerful.”

Viktor Arvidsson was inclined to agree.

“Yeah, obviously it was nice to shut out a team,” he said. “I think we played a solid game and it was tight checking the whole game and we won. We just want to win games and it’s hard in this league, so that’s good.”

What was perhaps the most encouraging sign for the Kings was seeing things show up in the game that they worked on in practice. The Kings focused on a few areas of their game in practice on Monday that showed up on the ice on Tuesday. That’s a good sign. Today’s practice offered some focal points as well, including a lengthy session on the power play, even though it was a bit shorter overall than Monday’s skate.

With that in mind, here’s how the Kings lined up today for practice, wearing the forum blue and gold jerseys we all love to see –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Walker – Clarke

Quick
Petersen

Notes –
McLellan Talks Quick, Power Play
First, Todd McLellan gave two extended answers when it came to the play of Jonathan Quick and the performance of the power play, both last night and as of late. Those quotes, in full, available below –

On Jonathan Quick and his importance to the group
I could keep you here all day and say nice things about Quickie because it’s easy to do. Start with everybody around him, we all work with him and I’ve said this before, I think goaltending is a tough position and I personally believe that the team either plays for that individual rather than just being an extra position. I think when Quickie is in, our guys want to play for him and I think that’s really important. He’s competitive, a leader, I know that once or twice there’s been a “C” put on a goaltender and we’re not going down that route, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lead. He’s been able to take Clarkie under his wing, just the things he does for his teammates without anybody knowing is pretty remarkable. I could talk about his saves and all that other stuff, but sometimes you don’t know the person and I think that’s more of what you’re asking me about, the person.

On the power play and its struggles yesterday evening
Our power play last night was anemic and we didn’t create enough momentum for us to get energy off of that. I thought it took a little energy away from our team. We had the opportunity to regroup after the second period and re-focus, which was important, but had the outcome from that game been different, say 1-0 the other way, we still would have focused on power play, but I would have likely been pointing more fingers at it. The other reason is I think we played well enough to win in Chicago, we did some really good things, but the power play was ineffective there as well. It’s time to get it together and play like we can. We’ve been really good on the power play in some games it’s been outstanding, but it kind of matches a bit of our game, which hopefully we’re coming out now at 5-on-5 where the inconsistency is too great.

ROY-al Recovery
An interesting topic over the last few days has been the team’s lack of practice time here early in the season. This week has changed course, with the Kings slated for three practices here in home confines, but managing the body without practice time has been an important part of the process in the first month or so of the season.

Several names of players have been thrown out as guys who do a good job with that, and many were the usual suspects, your veterans, letter wearers, the guys you’d expect. Another name in that mix was a younger veteran, however, in Matt Roy. A truly consistent individual with his style of play and approach to the game, Roy’s professionalism translated off the ice as well and provided a strong example for younger defensemen to watch and learn from.

“Recovery, taking care of your body, the older guys preach it, taking care of your body physically and mentally and Royzie is a guy who is really good at that,” Sean Durzi said. “We got together on the road just in the hotel, whether we’re using the amenities there, the sauna, stretching, hydrating, it’s all part of being a pro and a successful NHL player.”

Todd McLellan referenced the coach-speak phrase of being a “true pro” in today’s media availability when referencing Roy. He spoke about being attentive when it comes to systems and structure, but also taking care of himself the right way off the ice when it comes to eating right and getting the necessary sleep.

It doesn’t come easily for every younger player, and now with a couple of years under his belt, Roy seems to have found that balance.

“Some of the younger players try and figure it out and they struggle with it early,” McLellan said. “They may be up on the plane until two o’clock in the morning playing cards when they need to be rested, they may be playing at night when they should be sleeping and hours get mixed up. That’s part of growing up and learning and Matt Roy has done that. He’s a man, he’s matured, he does a very good job of it and that’s part of why he’s so consistent.”

For Roy’s part, he doesn’t necessarily feel like he’s doing anything crazy or out of the norm, though he admitted it could be something that factors into why his play is typically around the same level on most nights.

It’s also not been the same for him from day one to now. He’s grown as he’s become more of a veteran and he’s been able to see what others have done before him, learning and implementing himself along the way. With very little on-ice practice time on the road this season, Roy found things like breathing exercises and a good sauna on the road to be a good substitute on a day without on-ice practice.

“I’ve been tinkering with a few things over the years,” he said. “I do some breath-work before games and before I go to bed, but I think the main part is just trying to eat healthy, stay hydrated and trying to get into the sauna when we can. It just feels good, it’s something I feel like helps to do. It can be a good substitute to just get a good sweat in, it’s more so just about feeling good and feeling ready.”

Whatever it is, the example being set is a strong one and the on-ice performance of a player who excels at suppressing offense speaks for itself.

Had a great conversation today with Viktor Arvidsson which we’ll share in the coming days with a few supporting quotes. Great to see 33 look more like himself last night. A few more storylines heading into tomorrow as the Kings look for a bounceback result against Chicago in the evening.

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