12/13 Preview – Doughty “should be good to go” + JAD in Top 6, Another Response, A BuffalOff Day

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (15-11-5) @ Buffalo Sabres (12-14-2)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR SEASON GAME
WHEN: Tuesday, December 13 @ 4:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: KeyBank Center – Buffalo, NY
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: We’ve reached the back third of the six-game roadtrip here tonight, as the Kings visit the Buffalo Sabres for the first time this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: A quartet of LA Kings players expected to play tonight – Tobias Bjornfot, Alex Iafallo, Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar – each had two points from two games played a season ago versus the Sabres. Defenseman Mikey Anderson was a +4 from the two victories. Western New York native Alex Iafallo has six points (1-5-6) from eight career games versus the Sabres.

KINGS VITALS: Considering the back-to-back set, the Kings did not practice yesterday and took the ice for a full-team morning skate today in Buffalo.

Goaltender Pheonix Copley was the first netminder off this morning for the Kings, making him tonight’s projected starter in Buffalo. Copley has faced the Sabres once to date in his NHL career, a 26-save performance in a shootout victory back in 2018, as a member of the Washington Capitals.

For reference, here is how the Kings lined up this morning at KeyBank Center –

Fiala – Kopitar – Kaliyev
Anderson-Dolan – Danault – Moore
Iafallo – Kempe – Vilardi
Grundstrom – Lizotte – Fagemo
Kupari

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Bjornfot – Walker
Edler – Spence

Copley
Quick

The Kings have appeared to make a series of roster moves this morning, corresponding off of yesterday’s roster moves. Forward Viktor Arvidsson will not play tonight, with a non-roster designation, as his wife is expecting the birth of their second child. Forward Samuel Fagemo is expected to check in, with a shuffling of the lines to accommodate. More on that below.

On the backend, Drew Doughty “should be good to go” tonight, per Todd McLellan, with defenseman Alex Edler likely to check out. The recently recalled Jordan Spence and Rasmus Kupari were also on late after morning skate for additional work.

SABRES VITALS: Today’s home game is a one-off for the Sabres, before they begin a three-game Western trip on Thursday in Colorado.

Goaltender Craig Anderson was the first netminder off this morning for Buffalo, making him tonight’s projected starter against the Kings. Throughout his NHL career, Anderson is 5-8-4 versus LA, with a .890 save percentage and a 3.36 goals-against average.

Per Heather Engel of NHL.com, here’s how the Sabres lined up during morning skate today –

How they’re lining up today:

Mittelstadt-Thompson-Tuch
Peterka-Cozens-Quinn
Asplund-Jost-Olofsson
Girgensons-Krebs-Okposo

Extras: Skinner (suspended), Hinostroza (undisclosed injury)

Samuelsson-Dahlin
Power-Bryson
Clague-Fitzgerald
Pilut

— Heather Engel (@engelheather) December 12, 2022

Buffalo winger Jeff Skinner, who has 11 goals from 18 career games against the Kings, will not play tonight due to a suspension. Former Kings defenseman Kale Clague is expected to dress tonight for Buffalo, his first game against the organization that drafted him.

Notes –
Another Response Needed
I suppose the positive side of inconsistency, if you want to call it that, is the ability to respond after performances that leave you wanting more. Forward Trevor Moore was blunt this morning, when asked if he feels that tonight could be another one of those nights for the Kings.

“It better be.”

After the game in Columbus, Todd McLellan expressed disappointment in the value placed on the defensive side of the puck, especially amongst the forwards in the top six. Moore owned a lot of that this morning, talking about the need for the Kings to check better and play well defensively. He took a lot of the onus on his line for not doing that, though it’s something that everyone needs to do a better job of.

“We just haven’t been checking the way that we want to check and it starts in our own end, taking care of the puck,” he said. “You want to score, but if you turn pucks over, it ends up in your net and it’s a minus, right? We have to check well and play good defensively.”

Speaking with forward Anze Kopitar, he used that big c-word again – consistency. If you look at games versus Ottawa and Montreal on this trip, the Kings generally were responsible defensively. They didn’t leave their goaltender with a ton of dramatic saves to make and as such they were compact and played the way they needed to. Not the case on the other two games of the trip versus Toronto and Columbus.

Despite getting a point against Columbus, the Kings made mistakes that aren’t a part of the way they want to play the game.

“Just being little bit more consistent, obviously,” Kopitar said. “We gave up quite a few goals and quite a few of those goals were caused by some errors that normally don’t happen to us. Cleaning that up and get on to winning ways again.”

As Moore correctly pointed out this morning, Buffalo has scored more goals than any other team in the NHL. 109 to be exact. They’ve also allowed more goals than all but one team – Columbus – in the Eastern Conference. The Sabres also happen to be the NHL’s only team with more goals scored than the Kings, who have conceded more goals than every team other than Anaheim.

Todd McLellan also highlighted Buffalo’s offensive ability and their propensity to take a game and play it their way. For success tonight though, it’s more about the Kings worrying about their own approach and executing as they know they are capable of.

“We still have to concern ourselves with what we’re leaving on the table, as we try and attack the offensive zone,” McLellan said. “Until we solidify that, we’ll likely end up in those games and I don’t think that favors the Kings very much, so obviously we’ve got some things to fix. Buffalo has their own way of playing and their own style, but we’ve got to worry about the white team tonight.”

The Notorious JAD
A great opportunity tonight for one Jaret Anderson-Dolan.

With Arvidsson out of the lineup, the Kings needed to reshuffle things around a bit to accommodate one of their veterans not being available. Tonight, the Kings opted to bump Anderson-Dolan onto a line with Trevor Moore and Phillip Danault, with Samuel Fagemo slotting into the bottom six, in Anderson-Dolan’s place with Blake Lizotte and Carl Grundstrom.

“It’s part JAD, and part Kempe’s line and Lizzo’s line right now, they have some unity and I think that putting Sammy Fagemo back in will fit well with Lizzo’s line, so JAD was the one to go up,” McLellan detailed this morning. “He’s performed pretty well over the last few games, he’s been quite responsible defensively, using his legs to create time and space for himself and for his teammates. We’ll try that and we’ll see how it goes.”

Regarding Anderson-Dolan, there are two ways to look at it. Does he need to change his approach at all to adjust to a top-six role, or is he being put into the top six because of how he’s played to get there?

His approach was to continue to play his own style of hockey, the style and approach that earned him the lineup bump. Play like Jaret Anderson-Dolan and go from there.

“Just play your game, that’s all you can do,” he said this morning. “Maybe you adjust a little bit and realize that they’re going to be in different spots than other players might be on different lines, but you just adjust to that and I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

For Anderson-Dolan, it’s not his first chance to play in the top six at the NHL level – Last season in Columbus, he was recalled from the AHL and immediately slotted onto Kopitar’s line. It is his first opportunity to do so this season, however.

He plays a certain way and he’s not looking to veer from that, but at the same time, he believes he’s capable of playing on this line and wants to produce given the opportunity.

“Obviously, you want to produce when you’re playing with guys like that and I think they’re capable of bringing me up to their level, but I also think I’m capable of playing up to their level,” he said. “I think it’s a mixture of both, just bringing my game into that line, but also look to make some plays and create some offense.”

Regardless of which line his name is placed on on the lineup card, Anderson-Dolan believes that his game can complement a wide variety of players, whether it’s a top-six role or a bottom-six role. He’s also played top-six minutes in the AHL with Ontario, so he’s familiar in both settings. Don’t change anything, play your game and hopefully it works out favorably.

BuffalOff Day
Lastly, Insiders, a quick look behind the scenes at how the team spent yesterday’s day off.

The group took a short bus ride to spend some time at Alex Iafallo’s family-owned restaurant, the Towne House, in Hamburg, NY. A good time by the group, and a good team-building opportunity for all who attended.

“Those opportunities are really good for the team, especially when you tie it into somebody’s family and we’re talking about Iafallo’s family here,” Todd McLellan detailed this morning. “Al means a lot to everybody in that locker room, I think you get the sense of that when I talk about him. For Al’s family to be gracious enough to invite the whole group over and the group, to a man, responds and all goes, it’s a good team-building event. It’s also good when you have a day off to be occupied a little bit, you’re not just laying around, so overall that day is two checkmarks. It sounds like the players had a lot of fun, but now we move on and back to work.”

Kings and Sabres from KeyBank Center, tonight at 4 PM Pacific, 7 PM here in New York!