Practice 12/21 – Short Skate Today + How Consistent Is Consistent, THAT Goal, Forever A King

The final practice day before the holiday break, Insiders!

On the middle day of a 3-in-4, the Kings hit the ice today for a relatively short skate at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo. Coming off of a 4-1 win over Anaheim last night, the Kings were on the ice for around 25 minutes today, getting things moving and by 11:30 it was only Brendan Lemieux, who continues to work his way back to health off of a lower-body injury, who remained on the ice for extra work.

Quick and efficient and probably what you want to see when a team is riding a three-game winning streak with two big ones coming up over the next two days.

No formal line rushes today, at least none that I could see, so I am not sure if there’s much that we should lend a ton of weight to. For reference, combinations from last night’s win over Anaheim are embedded below for reference –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Spence

Copley
Quick

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 21, 2022

As it comes to potential changes moving forward, as noted, today was not a day that gave us a ton of indication. Lemieux is still on injured reserve and would need to be activated before he’s ready to roll. Carl Grundstrom and Sean Walker were the scratches yesterday and Head Coach Todd McLellan believes that both are capable of playing right now. It creates internal competition and that’s a good thing for the Kings.

“Pep is going to be coming back, Grunny is a hell of a player and he’s not even in our lineup right now and Walks should be in there,” McLellan said this morning. “There’s competition and that should drive a team. We hope we have that.”

Notes –
How Consistent Is Consistent?
That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?

There isn’t a number of games that all of a sudden turns on the lightbulb, when the Kings have played six good games out of seven and all of a sudden we retire the word inconsistency. We’re certainly not there yet. The Kings have played three good ones in a row – all victories – and really it’s just about been 11 out of the last 12 periods, the third in Buffalo withstanding. But for a team that has far too often shown glimmers of light, before giving it back the next night or a couple down the road, it’s about bringing that level over an extended stretch of games that is important.

“It’s a good question, I don’t know the answer right now,” McLellan said earlier today. “Some teams, they just finally get it and they show up as the same group every night. It doesn’t always go your way, it might look inconsistent but it’s not by intent. I’m not sure of the answer with our group, because I’ve thought we at some point grasped consistency, but then we give it back.”

When asked about the Boston game as the potential start of the run, McLellan has frequently referenced the Buffalo game as well. The Kings were quite good in the first half of the game in Buffalo, executing their style of play effectively, but fell apart with six goals allowed in the third. Could that game actually have been a turning point for this group? It’s too early to tell, but there were positive signs when reflecting back.

“I don’t know if we’re at that turning point, but maybe we’ll look back a few months from now and we’ll call it that,” McLellan said this morning. “It was a very, very strange game in my opinion. We played about as well as we could in the first period and a half for sure, then we started to take penalties, we got impatient and a good offensive team made us pay. It was just bang-bang-bang, it was like we got slapped six times and we didn’t know what hit us, but maybe that is the turning point, maybe we realized that enough is enough, let’s go. We’ll see, but we don’t know that yet.”

It’s actually a pretty fascinating topic and it’s especially relevant when it comes to this team. The Kings have flashed what they can be and they’ve also flashed what happens when they don’t play the right way. We won’t know the answer for this group tomorrow and we won’t know it the next day. The hope is that we can look back in two weeks, reflecting on the prior set of games, and have a better answer to the question.

More on THAT Goal

FIRST OFF – Copyright infringement, @NHL.

LAK Goal – FIALTHY!!!

Absolutely incredible goal from Fiala. Splits the defensemen, shrugs off a check and goes forehand-to-backhand despite the contact. 4-1 Kings.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 21, 2022

Hate to see us small-time writers plagiarized by the shield. Hate to see it. Onto the goal though……downplay it all you want, Kevin, but that was nasty.

“I just tried to make a play and thankfully it worked out.”

Okay man………

Thankfully, his teammates and his Head Coach were more than willing to hype it up a bit.

Todd McLellan last night complimented Fiala’s strength on the play, with his ability to withstand checks from defensemen on both sides of him as he came through the middle. Asked to clarify this morning, McLellan explained that by using the word strength, it’s more than say just the ability to lift weights, but rather strength throughout the full body to make that play happen.

“I think that’s complete control of your body, because your edges and your attachment to the ice has to be strong, you’re off balance, your hands have to be positioned right, you have to reach and elevate a puck effectively while you’re doing all this,” McLellan said. “The whole package was involved in one play, that’s pretty strong, including the mind, so that’s what I meant in this situation.”

Two of his teammates – Alex Iafallo and Adrian Kempe – had similar thoughts on the play. They saw Fiala’s ability to control the puck and his strength in doing so as positives that he brings to the table.

Iafallo – Yeah, it was unreal. He can protect the puck very well and fend off guys like that with his arms and he still has the puck. That’s definitely really good.

Kempe – He’s really strong on the puck and he’s really good on his edges. When you’re good on your edges, you’re stronger than people think you are because you get a lot of power just from having that ability. It doesn’t matter where your skates are, you can still find the strength somehow and he’s really good on his edges and that’s a good thing to have.

Kempe was the man who made the pass that sprang the speedy Fiala in alone, so his perspective was the most first-hand of anybody.

Fiala was quick to highlight the pass that Kempe made, which gave Fiala the chance to use his elite skating ability to create a chance that most others would not have even had the opportunity to create. From there, Kempe praised Fiala’s high-level edgework and stickhandling ability when evaluating the play.

“Just trying to keep control of the puck at the same time, it’s a hard thing to do,” Kempe added. “The fact that he stayed on his feet I think was the most impressive thing and then the move, it was an impressive goal.”

Impressive indeed………impressive indeed.

Forever A King
Lastly, Insiders, a new community-driven initiative announced today by the Kings and Kings Care Foundation.

Knowing many of you already have your tickets for Dustin Brown’s jersey retirement and statue unveiling night, but for those who do not, an opportunity to secure tickets for that game and to get your name engraved on Brown’s segment of the 50th Anniversary Statue. The packages also include tickets to the LA Kings Festival in February, a meet-the-team event, as well as an opportunity to see the Brown statue unveiling on February 11. For more information, visit LAKings.com/ForeverAKing.

The LA Kings, as a way to provide unique access for fans to be a part of the historical night on February 11 – in which Dustin Brown will have his jersey retired and a statue unveiled at Crypto.com Arena – today announced a series of ticket packages to commemorate the special event while also raising money for a tremendous cause.

FOREVER A KING packages for Dustin Brown Night will benefit the Kings Care Foundation and provide fans the opportunity to access the game, which will feature a pre-game on-ice ceremony in which Brown’s No. 23 jersey will be raised to the rafters. In addition, all fans in attendance for that night’s Kings-Pittsburgh game will receive a mini replica of the Dustin Brown statue that will forever reside in Star Plaza at Crypto.com Arena.

Back at it for morning skate tomorrow in El Segundo, before the Kings begin a back-to-back set tomorrow evening versus the Flames. The team concludes its pre-Holiday Break slate on Friday in Arizona with the first ever trip to Mullett Arena in Tempe, preceding a three-day break from December 24 – 26.

Proudly presented by Destination Vancouver. More Pacific-ER. More North-ER. More West-ER. Go Norther.