11/15 Practice – Kings Review CGY Pitfalls + Kaliyev talks goals, Doughty on World Cup, Kopitar Players Tribune

A practice on the road, Insiders!

A practice on the road. Novel. The Kings were on the ice in Edmonton this afternoon with the focus on regrouping in advance of tomorrow’s showdown with the Oilers. Today’s practice wasn’t necessarily a long one, considering the short travel last night within the province of Alberta, but it served its purpose with the Kings focusing in on a few specific details they wanted to go over, discuss and address on the ice after yesterday’s game against the Flames.

“When we watched the Calgary game again, I think the will and the effort wanted to be there, but mentally some really poor decisions and some poor execution,” Todd McLellan said this morning “We just talked about that, we showed them a few clips that we thought we were doing well in the five games prior that we didn’t do well against Calgary and that we’ll need tomorrow night against a really good team.”

While you could pinpoint more specific areas of the game as areas that were lacking, as McLellan said in yesterday’s availability, you took one of the say 20 moments out of the game and it might have helped but likely it would not have changed the outcome. The Kings turned pucks over in their own end against the Flames far too often, leading to three of the six goals against, with McLellan admitting today that last night was not a good one as far as being “connected” as a group.

The resulting odd-man opportunities were not there in the 4-0-1 stretch preceding that McLellan mentioned, something that will need to change against Edmonton tomorrow evening.

The bulk of the conversation, coming from just about everyone who calls Edmonton home, came with regards to the playoff series between these two teams last year. Questions surrounded the point in the series that McLellan felt the series slipped away from the Kings, Drew Doughty’s availability should the Kings have advanced to the second round and the concept of experience gained from the Kings point of view, how it was handled and how the experience needs to be used and applied to have meaning. Those were and have been answered from a Kings perspective, but being the first game back between the two teams, there were naturally some larger storylines for the media up this way. A heavy dose of that leading into tomorrow and then off we go.

In terms of today’s alignment, it appeared as if the Kings returned to the way they started yesterday’s game at least in terms of the forwards. McLellan and the staff opted to shake up the lines a bit at the second intermission yesterday, in an attempt to get something going, but jersey colors today appeared to be more of a return to the norm.

Here’s how the Kings aligned during today’s skate –

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

Defensemen were shuffled, as the Kings had seven of them on the ice which mixed and matched the pairings in an attempt to get each player repetitions. All seven defensemen on the roster took part in practice and there were no indications of a change on the backend, but we’ll see what tomorrow’s skate brings.

An Arty Party North of the Border
On a night when not much went the way the Kings were hopeful that it would, forward Arthur Kaliyev had himself quite the 79 seconds early in the first period. In his own words, he simply got the chances and he buried them. Not a bad approach.

First, after the Kings conceded the game’s first goal, he was the final piece on one of the best power-play sequences the Kings have run through this season, burying the puck as he moved down from his position on the right side of the umbrella to tie the game at one. Kaliyev credited the puck movement his teammates were able to create with the end product being his ability to hammer a one-timer, on a sequence that stemmed from a low to high play on this particular sequence.

“Yeah, I’ve just been shooting off of what they’re doing, I think we have a perfect combination with all the players we have on [that unit],” he said this morning. “It makes it easier to one-time the puck on that side and I play there most of the time. It’s been working pretty well and hopefully we keep that up.”

On his second goal, just 1:19 later, it was simply a read-and-react situation, but Kaliyev also created a little bit of space for linemate Blake Lizotte through the neutral zone. His delayed movement torwards the right wing freed up a bit of space for Lizotte, who eventually found defenseman Matt Roy off the rush. Kaliyev found himself on the right side, where Roy’s rebound was pushed to, and he reacted in the moment to try and beat Markstrom to the near post.

“I just saw a rebound that popped up and was thinking that maybe the goalies wouldn’t go back into his position,” he added. “I figured I might as well just fire it at the net and see what happens and it went in.”

Earlier this season, Todd McLellan shared an expression provided by Assistant Coach Jim Hiller, which is being ready to score, not just ready to shoot.

The expression specifically applies to Kaliyev, who has such a high-level shot that really regardless of his shot selection at lower levels, he was going to be able to find the back of the net regularly. As he’s progressed here in his sophomore season, he’s seen his selection improve and he’s found himself ready not just to shoot, but to score. It’s come through for sure on the man advantage, where he leads the team with four power-play goals.

His last three PPG’s have come off assists from Viktor Arvidsson, who has helped to add another dimension to his power-play unit with his playmaking ability from down by the goal line. All four of Kaliyev’s goals on the man advantage have incorporated either a low-to-high play or a cross-crease play, with typically Arvidsson making the right read and Kaliyev having the awareness and hockey sense to find the most dangerous area on the ice. With his shot and mentality, he’s a huge weapon in those situations.

“I think he had that shooting mentality from juniors, obviously he was a prolific scorer there, but it’s different,” McLellan said this afternoon. “A lot of these shots that he’s taking now, he might have 30 goals in junior, but the teams that are defending and the goaltenders that play in this league are pretty darn good, so you can’t just have an I’m going to shoot it and score mentalitym you had to be ready to score. You might have to shoot a little quicker, you might have to find a spot that’s a little more fine than what you’re used to. Very rarely does somebody enter the league and score 40 right away, they work up in increments. We’re seeing that in Arty’s game, and I think that’s part of it. He’s getting ready to score rather than just to shoot.”

Doughty Addresses World Cup of Hockey
Drew Doughty is a popular man when it comes to these Canadian trips. So much so that I wonder if Cal Petersen stayed on the ice for extra work simply to free up the space to Doughty’s left, as the two had their stalls next to each other here in Edmonton. Mikey Anderson may have done himself a favor in vacating the room by choice before he was engulfed in the mess.

Among the topics that Doughty touched on was that of the World Cup of Hockey. The NHL and NHLPA originally hoped to come to an agreement regarding a best-on-best event in February 2024, but announced on Friday of last week that details could not be agreed upon with the two sides now targeting February 2025. Doughty missed out on likely participating in the Olympics last season, when the NHL pulled out as a league due to the overall landscape of the COVID pandemic.

Doughty noted that a World Cup of Hockey is a fun event, but doesn’t mean as much to the players as the Olympics do. Doughty is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and was a likely selection last season when NHL players were scheduled to participate. Naturally being in Edmonton, he was also asked about playing with Connor McDavid in an international event, something McDavid has yet to do at the senior level.

“It’s unfortunate for him, he obviously deserves to be on that team and win and it would be an absolute honor to play with him, I can’t even imagine how easy it would be,” Doughty said. “I hope that day does come, but it won’t be for awhile, so right now I’m just going to keep trying to shut him down.”

Doughty always gets up for the games in Edmonton, with the opportunity to test himself against two of the league’s best forwards. For a player who takes immense pride in the defensive side of his game, few tests are greater than the one he and his teammates will face tomorrow evening against McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers.

Kopitar Joins The Players Tribune
“You get spoiled in a hurry with this, because there are people that are flying halfway across the world just to come here. I’ve been here for 16 years and you kind of take everything for granted with how special this city is.”

Kings Captain Anze Kopitar joined the Player’s Tribune for a tour of Venice and Manhattan Beach, with a look on why he’s loved calling Los Angles home for the last 16 years. A cool watch on a future Hall of Fame player who has committed his entire career to the city and to the Kings organization.

“I've been here for 16 years and everything just kind of feels natural already so you kind of take everything for granted on how special this city is.”

Hop in the passenger seat and take a stroll as @AnzeKopitar shows you around Los Angeles.

Presented by @Enterprise. pic.twitter.com/usxUXQpDP1

— The Players' Tribune (@PlayersTribune) November 15, 2022

The Kings will take on the Oilers tomorrow evening at 7 PM Pacific, 8 PM here in Edmonton, on game two of the current trip. More to follow from morning skate in the AM!

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