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11/29 Preview – A Look At Recent Defensive Improvements + Lizotte Out, Milestones On Tap

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WHO: Los Angeles Kings (13-3-3) vs. Washington Capitals (10-6-2)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR-SEASON GAME
WHEN: Wednesday, November 29 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings are back in action this evening after a three-day layoff, as they host the Washington Capitals for the first time this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Forwards Phillip Danault (2-0-2), Adrian Kempe (1-1-2) and Trevor Moore (0-2-2) each had two points from the two games versus the Capitals last season. During last season’s victory in Los Angeles, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov scored his first goal as an LA Kings in the 4-2 win over Washington.

KINGS VITALS: After a pair of full-team practice days, the Kings held an optional morning skate today, in advance of tonight’s game.

Goaltender Cam Talbot did not take the ice for today’s morning skate, making him tonight’s projected starter against the Capitals. Talbot has posted a career record of 5-7-1 versus Washington throughout his career, with a .910 save percentage and a 2.67 goals-against average.

With just 12 healthy forwards and a steady setup on defense, not expecting any changes for the Kings from what we saw last time out. Those lines are embedded below –

As noted yesterday, forward Blake Lizotte will not play today against Washington, his fourth consecutive game missed due to injury. Lizotte did take today’s morning skate, in a non-contact red jersey, with eyes potentially on Sunday’s game versus Colorado. Defenseman Jacob Moverare, who featured last night with the AHL’s Ontario Reign, is available as an extra option should the Kings need him.

CAPITALS VITALS: Washington has reached game two of five on the road here in the Western part of the country, entering tonight’s action off a 2-1 defeat in San Jose on Monday.

No word yet from the Washington side on which goaltender will start tonight’s game. Should Darcy Kuemper make his second consecutive start, he brings with him a record of 9-7-3 against his former club, with a .927 save percentage and a 2.20 goals-against average. If Charlie Lindgren gets the nod, he would be making his first career start versus the Kings.

Per the Washington team account, here’s how the Capitals lined up on Monday against the Sharks –

Two former Kings – goaltender Darcy Kuemper and forward Nic Dowd – are expected to be amongst the 20 players dressed for tonight’s game in Los Angeles. Washington ranks first in the Eastern Conference in fewest goals allowed and last in the Eastern Conference in goals scored. Defenseman John Carlson has 11 points (4-7-11) over his last seven games versus the Kings, the most in the NHL in that span amongst blueliners who have played exclusively in the Eastern Conference.

Notes –
Defensive Display
Tonight’s game features the number one and number two ranked teams in the NHL this season in goals allowed.

No NHL team has allowed fewer goals than the Kings, who have conceded just 47 times this season. As noted above, no team in the Eastern Conference has conceded fewer goals than the Capitals, who have 50 against on the season.

For a while, we were wondering if we’d see the Kings in that type of conversation. The Kings were seemingly scoring at will – the Kings still rank fourth in the NHL in goals scored – but defensively, there were lapses in certain areas that were leading to goals against. For the most part, the issues this year were isolated, rather than what we saw last season, when the Kings did not commit to playing a certain style of hockey until December. From that point on, they rolled.

In the early stages of the 2023-24 campaign, they’ve simply cleaned things up from what went wrong earlier in the season. What we’ve seen on their current five-game winning streak is a total of five goals allowed. The start of the streak was a hard-fought, 2-1 win over Florida but each win since has been by at least three goals. The Kings have already won 10 times this season by three-or-more goals, second in the NHL. Over the last two years, they ranked 21st in that area, despite being a playoff team in both seasons.

You don’t get there without both sides of the puck, but it’s been the defensive commitment as of late that’s been noticeable.

“Our goalies are playing really well, both of them, and that’s a huge part of it, but that’s the type of team we want to be,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We like getting a lot of goals and stuff like that, but early on in the season, the only reason we were losing games is because we were getting in those shootout matches, giving up 4-5 goals a game right off the bat and we were upset and disappointed with our results defensively.”

Doughty added that both the coaches and players addressed the defensive side of the game and everyone has noticed the improvements as of late.

Naturally, the proof is in the pudding and five goals allowed over the last five games is a pretty good testament to those improvements.

“We talked about it and obviously the start wasn’t good enough,” forward Adrian Kempe added. “Some games, we had really good periods when we did it and then it went off and slipped away on us. I think now, we take more pride in just playing well defensively. We know that we’re going to get offense, we’re going to score goals, so it’s not just playing the rush game back and forth against other teams. We’re doing a good job playing the way we want to.”

Todd McLellan has seen the improvements in more specific areas.

He’s pointed to better management of shift length as of late, as well as keeping lines together as the Kings want to do, being better on faceoffs – both wins and losses – as the Kings want to do. He feels the commitment’s been there all year and now we’re seeing sharper execution in certain areas. When all of the above are clicking, there’s the ability to win games the way the Kings are right now.

“I think that the commitment to do those things was there earlier, I don’t think we managed the game real well,” McLellan said. “We haven’t reinvented the wheel, we haven’t, but we’ve been fresher, we haven’t been got caught on the ice as tired, we’ve had shorter shifts, we’ve managed to get fresh guys out together, instead of being broken lines, we’re winning faceoffs when we need it, things like that.”

McLellan’s system emphasizes defensive structure and stability, but also allows players the freedom to create offensively.

All in all, the players believe in the system they’re playing and know that when it’s executed at its highest level, the offensive chances and goals are not lost when playing the right way defensively. The Kings have scored at least four goals in each of their last four games, while allowing a total of four goals in that span. With everything in place, and everyone on board, we’re seeing what the output can be.

“We have good systems in place and as long as we put all of our effort and heart into the system, I think it’s really good and it’s going to work,” Doughty added. “I think the guys have been doing a good job as unit altogether.”

Milestones On The Docket
A few potential milestones on the docket tonight for the Kings

– The Kings could reach 30 points through 20 games played for the second time in franchise history. The 1990-91 Kings collected 31 points through their first 20 games of the season, winning their 20th game of the season to hit the mark. The Kings enter tonight’s game with 29 points from 19 games played, via a record of 13-3-3, which ranks second in the NHL by winning percentage.

– Defenseman Drew Doughty is on track to appear in his 1,115th career NHL game tonight. In doing so, he will surpass Brent Seabrook (1,114) on the NHL’s all-time list for games played with one franchise among defensemen, the 11th blueliner in league history to hit the milestone with one club.

– The Kings have scored four or more goals in 12 of their 19 games so far this season, including each of their last four games. The last Kings team to have as many four-plus goal outings within their first 19 games of a season was in 1992-93, when the Kings achieved the feat 13 times. The Kings have scored 76 goals in total this season, their most since the 92-93 campaign, and their average of 4.00 goals-per-game leads the NHL.

When the two teams who have allowed the fewest goals in the NHL get together, we’re expecting a 2-1 game. Naturally, we’ll probably see a 6-5 affair that goes against the grain. Kings and Capitals, 7:30 PM puck drop in the only game the Kings will play over a span of seven days. Last stretch of this until the holidays, with things picking up beginning next week.

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