10/27 Preview – Morning Skate Notes + Facing The Same Opponent Twice, Line Identity & Matchups

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (3-2-1) vs. Arizona Coyotes (3-3-0)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Tuesday, October 27 @ 7:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Mullett Arena – Tempe, AZ
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings will take on the Arizona Coyotes tonight on the back end of a home-and-home set, their first of two games this season in Arizona.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings won the first matchup of the season on Tuesday by a 6-3 final at Crypto.com Arena. Four Kings forwards had multi-point games in the victory, as Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar and Blake Lizotte each tallied a goal and an assist. Fiala led the Kings last season with five points (3-2-5) from the three games played versus the Coyotes and his 23 career points against Arizona are his most against any one NHL opponent.

KINGS VITALS: Following yesterday’s full-team practice, the Kings held an optional morning skate today in Tempe. For reference, here’s how they lined up last time out –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Kaliyev
Fiala – Dubois – Laferriere
Grundstrom – Lizotte – Lewis
Anderson-Dolan

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence
Bjornfot

Copley
Talbot

Pheonix Copley was the first goaltender off this morning and it looks as if he will get the nod for the second straight game against Arizona. Copley made 24 saves in Tuesday’s 6-3 victory, improving his all-time record against the Coyotes to 2-0. In those games, Copley has a .911 save percentage and a 2.50 goals-against average.

The Kings lineup appears to be unchanged this morning, in line with the last four games. Should the Kings need to, or opt to, make a change, forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan and defenseman Tobias Bjornfot are options to check in.

COYOTES VITALS: Arizona has traded wins and losses this season, entering tonight with three of each in the early goings.

Goaltender Karel Vejmelka is expected to get the nod between the pipes tonight, after he entered in relief on Tuesday evening. Vejmelka has a career record of 2-3-0 against the Kings, with a .892 save percentage and a 3.51 goals-against average.

Per Arizona’s team account, here’s how the Coyotes lined up against the Kings on Tuesday –

The lines in LA pic.twitter.com/qikKUQf3U9

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) October 25, 2023

Arizona enters tonight’s action ranked in the NHL’s Top 10 in two key statistics – goals against per game and power play percentage. The Coyotes scored a PPG on Tuesday in Los Angeles, though they conceded a season-high six goals in that game. On the individual front, forward Matias Maccelli, who had an assist on Tuesday, has five points (1-4-5) from four career games versus LA.

Notes –
Haven’t We Seen You Before
In a rare change of pace, the Kings will face the same opponent in consecutive games.

Every season, it happens maybe a couple of times, though rarely do you see it so early in the schedule. In some ways, it’s déjà vu, because the Kings and Coyotes played a preseason back-to-back in Australia last month, though the stakes were objectively lower during the exhibition slate.

There’s a couple of schools of thought on how that might actually transpire.

For the coaches, it’s a little bit less work in terms of scouting a new opponent. The Kings just played Arizona on Tuesday and they’ve had two days to dissect and analyze that game. That on the back of two days without a game preceding Tuesday’s matchup. There is new footage to review but there are also known things about the opposition that carry over from one game to the next.

“I don’t want to say it’s easier but there’s less work for the coaching staff, because we’ve just played them, you don’t have another pre scout or anything like that,” McLellan said. “We can tap into some of the Australia stuff, it was real early, but you have current evidence right in front of you. You can bring to the players attention to certain moments and certain things that happen and it’s still fresh in their mind, but that works against you as well, because we’re going into Arizona and they’ll have adjusted or tried to clean things up too.”

For the players, there are pros and cons to the situation.

It’s Games 6 and 7 of the regular season, so there’s no mistaking these games for playoff sharpness or intensity, but in terms of the tightening up on the ice, when you play a team in consecutive games, things do change. The Kings did a lot of things well on Tuesday, but also felt they gave up too many chances from the dirty areas on the ice. Their focus is primarily on their own game right now, but with two straight games against the same team, they’re expecting ice to be a bit harder to come by tonight.

“I think it just gets tighter as it goes, you figure each other out,” forward Blake Lizotte said.”It’s like the playoffs, Game 1 and Game 7 are a lot different, so I think that’s what you’ll kind of see with us in Arizona, it will get a lot more tight-checking as we’ve kind of figured each other’s systems out and what players like to do.”

For a younger player like Alex Laferriere, it’s the first time he’s experienced this at the NHL level, though for a player who went through the college-hockey ranks, the schedule does set up like that in a lot of situations.

In a vacuum, there’s an advantage to playing a team in consecutive games, but outside of that vacuum it’s really an “advantage” for both sides. The team that is better adept at taking advantage of those situations is the one that will come out on top tonight.

“You get more comfortable playing against them, you know their systems a little bit more, being on the ice against it,” Laferriere said. “The players are the same and they’re going to try and do the same stuff, but they also get more comfortable against you. It’s kind of a systems battle at that point, just making little changes and trying to perfect it.”

How it actually plays out, we’ll see on the ice soon enough.

Line Identity
Another game, another goal for the line of Trevor Moore, Phillip Danault and Arthur Kaliyev.

Through six games, Moore ranks inside the NHL’s Top 10 in goals and even-strength goals. Overall this season, as a line, the trio has connected on five goals for compared to three against. They’re on the positive side of 50 percent in most publicly available puck possession metrics as well. So far, Kaliyev has slotted in effectively, even if the identity of the line has changed a bit as opposed to when Viktor Arvidsson played there.

“I think it changes a little bit,” McLellan said. “You still have Moorsie and Phil, who do their thing, and Arty has got to learn to play in those situations with them. He’s put himself in good spots, but he’s a different player, different hand, different size. Arvy is a more assertive individual on that line, whereas Arty is probably a little bit more respectful to the other two, he lets them command the group, but as he gets more confident, he’ll participate in that as well.”

From the players point of view, it’s clear that Kaliyev and Arvidsson are two different players, but it doesn’t change the approach that Danault and Moore carry into a game.

We know the individual games of each of those players very well. Arvidsson is shifty and crafty, with the ability to make plays for others and for himself. Kaliyev has the big shot and a bigger frame, with a lot of improvements made in puck battles and play along the wall, with added speed in his game as well, especially on the forecheck. Danault and Moore have always complemented each other quite well and spoke about how Kaliyev has slotted into that spot now as well.

Danault – I think Arty knows he has to be involved in the play, like Arvy was. They’re obviously different players, but [Kaliyev] knows how to score, how to find those areas and he’s not afraid to get into the dirty areas as well. He’s not just waiting and I think he’s at his best when he gets to the net and gets to those loose pucks.

Moore – Arvy is a pretty unique player, just the way that he controls ice and is so creative. Arty is a big shooter and he has the ability to play pretty physical too. They’re pretty different, but we [as a line] try to keep it more or less the same.

The Kings feel comfortable using that line in a variety of situations, with less of a focus on matchups overall this season compared to years past.

McLellan said yesterday that he and the coaching staff feel comfortable using each of their four lines in all situations, pointing to the trusting nature and quality of the centers as a reason why.

“We haven’t been as astute with matchups as we have in the past,” McLellan shared. “We think that Kopi, Phil, Dubois and Lizzo for that matter, can take care of things, so we’re not juggling matches as much and a lot of time that happens at the beginning of the year, you’ve got to get your team going.”

Danault’s line has been used in a variety of different ways throughout his time here, whether that be to matchup specifically against top opposing players or to be freed up to play their own game offensively as a play-driving line. Regardless of the third member, those options are all in play and there’s still a trusting nature to how that line plays the game.

Kings and Coyotes, 7 PM faceoff from the world’s most famous arena named after a hairstyle!