10/31 Preview – Tonight’s Vitals + Offense From The Blueline, A Confident King, Chrome Domes

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (4-2-2) @ Toronto Maple Leafs (5-2-1)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Tuesday, October 31 @ 5:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Scotiabank Arena – Toronto, ONT
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ESPN – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings hit the road this evening to begin a three-game trip on the East Coast, starting with tonight’s tilt in Toronto.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Each team held serve on home ice last season, as the Kings and Maple Leafs split the two matchups. Forwards Kevin Fiala (1-1-2) and Anze Kopitar (0-2-2) led the Kings against Toronto with two points apiece, while forward Adrian Kempe also scored. Forward Phillip Danault has four points from four games played versus Toronto since he joined the Kings organization.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held a full-team practice yesterday in Toronto and an optional morning skate earlier on today.

Expecting consistency in the lineup for the Kings, as we’ve seen over the first couple weeks of the season. Last game’s lineup is embedded below, with no changes expected –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence

Talbot
Copley

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 29, 2023

Goaltender Cam Talbot was off first this morning in Toronto, making him tonight’s projected starter versus the Maple Leafs. Talbot has faced Toronto ten times as a professional, posting a career record of 5-2-1 with a .910 save percentage and a 2.71 goals-against average.

In terms of tonight’s lineup, expect to see forwards Trevor Moore and Carl Grundstrom in action against their former organization. Should the Kings need to, or opt to, make any lineup changes, forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan and defenseman Tobias Bjornfot are on the trip and available to play.

MAPLE LEAFS VITALS: Toronto is back home tonight after completing their first roadtrip of the season, with their last five games played away from Ontario.

Toronto Head Coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed yesterday that goaltender Joseph Woll will be the starter between the pipes this evening. Woll has never faced the Kings in his NHL career, but brings with him a 3-1-0 record this season, with a .961 save percentage and a 1.33 goals-against average.

Per Toronto’s team account, here’s how the Maple Leafs lined up last time out, against Nashville, on Saturday –

Lines for tonight@Molson_Canadian | #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/PMyr76YQ89

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) October 28, 2023

Three Toronto forwards – John Tavares, William Nylander and Auston Matthews – are at a point-per-game or higher against the Kings over the last five seasons. The Maple Leafs enter tonight’s action as one of five NHL teams clicking at over 30 percent on the power play early this season.

Notes –
Defensemen Are Doing It
We’ve talked a lot about the depth scoring the Kings have at the forward position this season.

Four lines that are all contributing in their own ways offensively, all on different nights at different times. What has been spoken about less, however, is the fact that the Kings blueliners have produced at the rate of a full offensive line, chipping in seven goals through the first eight games of the season. Just two teams around the NHL have gotten more production from the backend than the Kings have in terms of goals scored. It’s a big boost for Todd McLellan and the group to have that type of production.

“It certainly helps,” McLellan said today. “Our shooting mentality from the top, I think, is stronger this year than it was last year. We’re seeing Drew, he’s using his shot and it’s been effective, but the others are following and more offense is coming off that than perhaps the rush or the entries that we’ve seen in the past.”

Doughty’s strong offensive start to the season was covered in depth yesterday, available here for the full feature. No defenseman in the NHL has more goals than Doughty in the early goings, who has buried four from his first eight games played. Always good to get off to a hot start, as he said yesterday.

“It’s huge, you always want to start off hot,” Doughty said. “There’s something about when you don’t start off hot, you feel like the whole season’s going to be a [gong]show for you, so you try really hard to get off on the right foot. I really don’t have all that many points, Mikey’s beating me this year, but I’m off to my hottest goal start ever and I want to keep it going. I want to shoot the puck, the boys are making great screens on my goals and they’re giving me the puck in the right spots. Really, I’m just shooting the puck as much as I can.”

Speaking of Anderson, he’s quietly amassed seven points from his first eight games played this season. Six of those points have come from assists, but looking back to Saturday’s game, Trevor Lewis’ goal came off of Anderson’s willingness to activate from the left point and get a shot on goal, with Lewis burying the rebound.

Never necessarily known for his offensive game, Anderson, and the defensemen as a whole, have certainly taken some steps forward in that area as of late.

“We’ve talked in the past a lot that it’s something our group wanted to get better at,” Anderson said. “We’ve been scoring a lot of goals as a team, so we’re happy to help contribute and the more we score as a team, the more points the defensemen are bound to get, just based on how plays are working. It’s something we’ve tried to improve over the last year or so on and we’re happy we’ve been able to help.”

As the Kings continue to strive for that balanced approach offensively, getting continued production from the backend is key.

Confidence Is King
As he returns to his home province for the first time, Kings forward Quinton Byfield is playing as confidently as he has in his NHL career.

Byfield picked up his first multi-point game of the season on Friday in Arizona and followed it up with another strong effort on Saturday against Vegas. The 21-year-old forward had nine shot attempts over the course of the weekend and has four games already this season with at least five shot attempts. All of last year, he reached that number just nine times.

Earlier this season, Byfield spoke about putting work in over the summer on improving his shot, not to mention he’s healed up from a pair of wrist injuries that hampered his shooting ability last season. What’s been the biggest key to turning hard work and little things into more noticeable production, however, has been confidence.

“I feel good, I feel confident this year,” Byfield said. “Just coming back and being able to play with Kopi and Juice, two unbelievable players, and just having the chemistry from last year build over this year as well, getting comfortable with them and the chemistry, it’s very easy to play.”

Byfield’s confident and authoritative play has showcased itself to his linemates – Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe – as well.

Kopitar – Q is a confident guy right now, which is great to see. He had a few really good games last year, even if the numbers didn’t really show it. This year, he’s getting rewarded on the scoresheet too which is great. He’s using his speed, his skill and his size. It’s great to see him develop and he’s playing with a little swagger too.

Kempe – We started playing with him last year and you could tell that he got better and better throughout the season. When he came into camp this year, you could tell he’s flying out there game, creating chances and I think he’s gotten the points he deserves for the job he does. I’m really happy to play with him and I’m excited to see how many more steps he can take throughout the season.

For tonight, it’ll be a special game for Byfield, as he plays in front of what he estimates to be more than 50 friends and family at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

Byfield missed the Toronto trip two seasons ago with a foot injury and missed last season’s trip due to illness. This season, though, things have aligned more favorably to where he’ll finally get the opportunity to play at Scotiabank Arena with the Kings, after narrowly missing out in consecutive seasons.

“I’m very excited to play here, hometown game, so I’ve got a lot of friends and family and I’m going to enjoy it,” Byfield said. “I wasn’t able to come the last few times here, due to injuries, sicknesses, so a lot of people have been reaching out, saying they’re coming to the game. Expecting close to 50 people, maybe more, it’s going to be a big one.”

Chrome Domes tonight, Insiders, the first time all season the Kings will wear the alternates.

Actually the first of three straight games the Kings will wear them, opting for the alternate jerseys on all three games this trip, with Ottawa and Philadelphia to follow.

Later than usual puck drop tonight on the East Coast for the national game, which aligns with a 5 PM start time in Los Angeles!