Practice 12/30 – Today’s Skate + Explaining The Alignment, Whole Lotta Overtime, Spengler Cup

Happy Friday, Insiders!

With travel home from Colorado getting the Kings back to Los Angeles around 1 AM, the team opted to skate an hour later today, with a noon practice here at Toyota Sports Performance Center. Always a good mood around the rink coming off of a victory. When that victory was a two-goal, comeback victory over the defending Stanley Cup Champions, on their ice, in a building that the Kings had not won in since 2018, that feeling is probably that much higher.

On The Alignment
The Kings opted to make a few in-game adjustments to their forwards, with Quinton Byfield moving up to the top line on the wing, with Kevin Fiala joining Blake Lizotte and Gabe Vilardi on a line that combined for the game-tying goal and Jaret Anderson-Dolan moving with Rasmus Kupari and Carl Grundstrom on a line Todd McLellan praised for their play in the third period.

Byfield played one game on the wing when in the AHL with Ontario, recalling that he skated on a line with two-time AHL MVP T.J. Tynan and forward Lias Andersson. Not a bad set of linemates. He didn’t look out of place in that role yesterday. Interesting to see how the Kings opt to deploy their lines moving forward, but the versatility that players like Kupari, Anderson-Dolan and Byfield bring, with the ability to move up or down the lineup and play various positions, is key.

As the Kings got back into the groove today, it was a relatively short skate for the group. Personnel looked to be the same as how the game ended in Colorado last night. That alignment is embedded below, for reference –

Looks like Quinton Byfield up on the top line with Kopitar and Kempe on that last run through.

55 – 11 – 9
19 – 24 – 33
22 – 46 – 13
91 – 89 – 28

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 30, 2022

McLellan on Shake Ups With Lines 1 and 3
Between periods we talked about it and sensed a little bit of frustration for Kopi’s line, individually at times, collectively, they just weren’t getting a lot done. Kevin has played well in that three hole in the past and as it turns out, they were on the ice for the game-tying goal. I thought Q gave Kopi’s line some energy, it was a different look, and we didn’t want to do anything with the Danault line, because we appreciated how they were playing.

McLellan on The Fourth Line
We had Grunny, JAD and Kupari and those types of players that didn’t get to play a lot, but when they played they gave us good, valuable minutes. We pulled them aside today and it was important for them to know that because that’s a hard hard game to play.

On the injury front, the Kings remain without a pair of forwards – Trevor Moore and Arthur Kaliyev. Kaliyev is on injured reserve, while Moore is still on the active roster, though has not played in either of the last two games.

McLellan on Moore Today
Trevor Moore didn’t skate today, so he’s obviously not playing tomorrow and it might be a little while.

The Kings have a friendly organizational schedule upcoming. The NHL club has just one away game – a one-off in Vegas – between now and January 21. Between now and January 17, AHL-Ontario leaves the state of California just once as well to play Vegas’s minor-league affiliate in Henderson. With both teams based out of the same facility, a potential roster move, should it be required, would be quite easy to make. For now, the Kings can roll with one extra at each position without issue.

Overtime & A Lot Of It
The LA Kings have played a lot of overtime lately. So much so that it’s become a running joke in the press box as to whether or not this team knows how long games are actually supposed to be played.

Overall, it’s been overtime games from six out of the team’s most recent nine played and the Kings have used a different starting combination for the extra session in all six games.

For reference, here is how the Kings have aligned to start each of those six games –

LAK @ COL: Danault, Arvidsson, Doughty
LAK @ ARI: Kopitar, Fiala, Doughty
LAK vs. CAL: Kopitar, Arvidsson, Doughty
LAK vs. SJ: Danault, Moore, Doughty
LAK @ BOS: Danault, Anderson, Roy (Kings Shorthanded)
LAK @ CBJ: Kopitar, Kempe, Durzi

Speaking with Head Coach Todd McLellan today, selecting overtime personnel comes down to a few different factors, detailed below –

“We had some pairs that we consistently went with but we were getting scored on quite early in some of the earlier situations, so we went away from that, we tried to shuffle the deck,” McLellan said this morning. “What we think about is one, who was just on the ice, how tired are they, because if they have to start and get caught on the ice for another minute and a half, that’s not always a good thing. Faceoff-wise who’s winning faceoffs and who isn’t because you want the puck. At home, you can sometimes look at who’s starting for the other group, I think that against Calgary, I believe, started two defenseman that night. It varies a little bit, but a lot of times it’s who’s played well and who’s rested.”

Of those six games, only two – the win over Calgary and the loss against Columbus – were actually decided in overtime. The Kings also had to deal with a penalty against in three of the six games. The Kings are mixing and matching a bit in the 3-on-3 setting, with six forwards and four defensemen earning at least one start to an overtime period. As McLellan noted, there are elements to pre-selection and also elements of feel to a particular game.

Looking at the season as a whole to date, no team has played in more games that have extended past the scheduled 60 minutes than the Kings have. 13 of 39 games, 1 out of every 3, has gone into overtime. With seven wins in those situations, no team has more of those either. The Kings went into overtime 20 times last season and are on pace to exceed that total here in 2022-23.

At 4-1 in the shootout this season, no team in the league has won or played in more shootout games than the Kings have. Adrian Kempe, Trevor Moore and Gabe Vilardi have both buried twice, with Moore accounting for two game-deciding goals and Kempe and Vilardi each tallying one. At the end of the day, the shootout is a skills competition, but for a team frequently going into overtime, finding success there is a way to steal and extra point. Good stuff for the Kings so far.

Bisson, Quine Complete Spengler Cup
The Ontario Reign will soon welcome back defenseman Tobie Bisson and forward Alan Quine, who concluded their participation in the 2022 Spengler Cup yesterday. The two Ontario skaters were selected to join Team Canada for the annual tournament, held each year in Davos, Switzerland.

The Spengler Cup is a short event, with Team Canada typically the only team that is not a regularly assembled group, but rather a combination of players playing professionally in the AHL, ECHL or in Europe. This season’s squad dropped three close games, including a 3-1 quarterfinal defeat Orebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League, to bow out early.

Neither player found the scoresheet during the tournament, with Quine filling the second-line center role and Bisson a member of the team’s second defensive pairing. Canada outshot its opposition 94-73 over the course of the three games but scored just four goals. How it goes sometimes in a short tournament.

Quine and Bisson did not practice with the Reign today following their travel home. Ontario returns to action tomorrow evening at home for their annual New Year’s Eve game, a 6 PM start time at Toyota Arena.

Coming up, Insiders, is a look into Alex Edler, who is sitting on 999 career NHL games played as of this afternoon. Edler was in the lineup last night and assuming all stay according to plan, he’ll play in number 1,000 tomorrow against the Flyers. Several of his teammates weighed in on his value and contributions to the organization and we’ll take a look at him more in-depthly over the next few days, starting tonight.

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