Practice 1/19 – Forward Line Adjustments + Additional Blake Evaluations

The Kings got back on the ice for another practice day here in El Segundo.

Running out of exactly how to keep saying similar things, but it’s another day with a focus on getting things right. To add to it right now, there’s clearly a lack of time to truly get into some things on the ice during an intense practice. January is the worst month of the season for the Kings as it comes to both travel and congestion of games. Early in the year, it was quite favorable. It’s coming back and then some now.

For today’s skate, the majority of the group was on the ice for practice.

Todd McLellan indicated yesterday that perhaps the full team would not hit the ice for practice today, noting that there’s a balance between what individual players need right now and what the collective group needs. Anze Kopitar’s icetime has been down by 60-90 seconds per game on the season, but last night he played a season-high 23:26. Drew Doughty is currently pacing the NHL in TOI/GP this season. Do those players need the on-ice work or would they benefit more from staying off the ice?

Others who haven’t seen their minutes quite as high could benefit more from the on-ice work.

Now, the team as a collective could certainly benefit from an on-ice practice day….or a few. The Kings are in one right now and there are certainly areas of the game that require work. When you haven’t scored a 5-on-5 goal in three of your last four, with offense across the board an area of concern, there are areas to be addressed, no doubt about it. While it might be difficult to understand it, the team believes there is benefit to structuring things the way they are, with rest and recovery as important as the on-ice work.

With that in mind, here’s how the Kings lined up for today’s skate –

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

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence – Clarke

Rittich / Talbot

More on the search of offensive production to follow later on today, as well as a look into the line combinations.

Blake Evaluations
As noted yesterday, General Manager Rob Blake addressed the media for a midseason update.

Had this availability come say 10 games ago, we’d probably have been looking at a pretty rosy conversation. Coming off a stretch when the Kings lost nine of 10, which became 10 of 11 later in the evening, the conversation was certainly much different.

For the higher-level takeaways, see yesterday’s article HERE. The notes in there include Blake’s thoughts on the team’s current level of play, as well as updates on Arvidsson/Lizotte, trade deadline preparation and the status of pending UFA’s.

Below, I’ll dive in a bit deeper into some of Blake’s other remarks, tying more specifically to individuals he commented on.

Naturally, that conversation begins with his impressions of Pierre-Luc Dubois’ first 41 games, the biggest move that Blake and the Kings made during the offseason.

The GM was asked about Dubois’ overall production, which has risen of late, but is still in line with the season he was traded from Columbus to Winnipeg.

“We would like to see more there, I think 5-on-5 points is probably very similar, very close to on par,” Blake said. “With the power play, the first unit has been good this year and they do take big minutes up there.”

In terms of 5-on-5 points, Dubois’ numbers are in fact right in line with where he’s been throughout his career. His 1.92 points per/60 are on track to be his highest mark since the 2019-20 season, his last full season as a Blue Jacket. The same can be said about his 0.79 goals per/60 at 5-on-5. I personally don’t buy into the expected goals metric on Natural Stat Trick, but if you do, it’s actually at the highest level of his career and his rebounds created number is nearly twice his career average, which would point to goals to come. He’s also playing a career-low 12:38 at 5-on-5 this season. Even as the raw production has disappointed, perhaps there’s something brewing.

Now, that’s only one side of it.

The other side is that Dubois spoke earlier in the year about seeing some similarities as it pertained to getting fully settled in between this season to date and his first season in Winnipeg. That was the worst season, production wise, throughout his NHL career. He’s said the right things about what he’s trying to do with his own game, as well as what he wants to see from the team’s game, acknowledging he’d like more on both fronts.

Blake feels that Dubois’ play with the puck has seen a lot of plays being made, but feels that team-wide, there has to be more done away from the puck. That includes Dubois, but isn’t limited to Dubois.

“I think when he has the puck, there’s a lot of good things happening,” Blake said. “There’s ways to get that puck back, that we need more, but that’s not him, that’s our team right now. When I say we want to defend in the structure in the system, it’s getting into that structure and it’s winning those battles, getting the puck back, because we have a lot of playmakers that when the puck’s on their stick, they make good plays. That execution is dropped off as a whole, so there’s a big combination there for all of us.”

Regarding some of the team’s younger players – Quinton Byfield and Arthur Kaliyev – both of whom are restricted free agents at the end of the season, Blake offered the following thoughts –

Blake on Byfield
He’s been driving us a lot this year, he’s taken steps. Talking about the growth of the player and now he adds the power-play net-front and he’s been having success on that, but he does a lot of work on that line and we’re seeing contributions.

Blake on Kaliyev
We need a little more from him and we’ve got to get him to fit in, in a certain spot there. You know, he’s a work in progress and we’ve got to continue to work with him.

With regards to Byfield, the Kings are happy with where he’s at right now, though they believe he is capable of playing both center and wing, as situations dictate. Today’s alignment shows him back in the middle, though that’s not indicitive of longer-term plans. With Kaliyev, Blake noted that the ideal spot for him right now would probably be on the third line, with either Dubois or Byfield at center. Two to keep an eye on, both in terms of needed on-ice contributions and eventual restricted free agency status.

At the AHL level, Blake was also asked about the duo of Alex Turcotte and Akil Thomas, who have both taken steps forward this season with the Ontario Reign.

“It was nice to Alex get back in those games, unrelated type injury from his past, but he played well. Akil’s taken a much bigger role, with some of the guys up here, and the injuries down there, some of those guys played more important roles, but those two both have been very good down there.”

Turcotte and Thomas are both natural centers who have perhaps seen pathways blocked to the NHL level at that position, due to the Kopitar/Danault/Dubois/Lizotte stability to date. With Lizotte out through at least the All-Star break, there could potentially be an opportunity there for a younger player to earn a look with the Kings. Both players have also seen some time on the wing, with Thomas in particular moving to the right, producing 11 points (6-5-11) over his last ten games. Also good news to hear that Turcotte’s injuries this season have not been tied to the problems that plagued him in the past. He’s back in action with the Reign and has been one of the team’s most productive players when in the lineup.

Should the Kings opt for additional forwards beyond Samuel Fagemo, there’s two names to monitor.

Will share some reactions from the locker room today on how the team is looking to score more goals. I don’t think it’s an elephant in the room right now, but rather just the current state of the group. More offense is needed, without sacrificing defensive structure and level. That much is clear. How exactly to do it, that’s the harder question to answer. More to follow.