2/14 Updates – “Fresh Look” w/ Line Combos + Grundstrom injured (lower-body), back to LA & Arvidsson “close”

Any Lord of the Rings fans in the room?

I’m thinking of a specific scene with Legolas and Gimli, where they’re going back and forth in a competition against each other. Legolas brings down a large animal, carrying a lot of Uruks, and Gimli tells him it only counts as one.

That’s where the LA Kings have to be at here this morning.

Last night’s game was probably the worst overall performance of the season. It likely left you disappointed, angry, or flabbergasted. Normal and fair reactions. Post-game reactions seemed like a group that didn’t quite know what hit them. Today, the focus was on bouncing back. The Kings strayed so far from the identity they’ve set out to embody, with just about every aspect of the defensive zone falling well short of what was needed.

The Kings will be judged the rest of the season based upon wins and losses. Not goal differential. Last night’s performance, which strayed from the identity of what this team prides itself on, can’t be repeated if the Kings want to find success. It cannot be. To quote a wise poster in our comment section, however, “at the end of the day”, the Kings are 1-1 since the All-Star break, under Jim Hiller’s direction. Wins and losses.

Jim Hiller spoke this morning about today’s game taking longer than just last night to get over. You usually like to leave a loss where you played it. Last night’s wasn’t quite that simple.

“You’d like to park it, shortly after the game, a couple hours, but we weren’t able to do that with this one,” Hiller said. “This one took us into today and prior to practice to be able to park it, because just of how the game went and where we’re at with recommitting to our identity. That wasn’t it last night. So, this one took a little longer, but it is parked now and we’re looking forward to New Jersey.”

the Kings are, as Bill Belichick would say, onto New Jersey. That doesn’t make yesterday’s loss go away and it doesn’t mean things will magically correct themselves. But, it’s a results-driven business and the Kings will be judged on wins and losses starting again tomorrow.

As such, the Kings practiced in Newark today, in preparation for tomorrow’s game versus the Devils.

Little bit of a different alignment for the Kings here this morning. Not particularly surprising coming off of last night’s result. Today’s alignment, as follows –

Byfield – Kopitar – Fiala
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Laferriere – Dubois – Kempe
Anderson-Dolan – Turcotte – Lewis – Kaliyev

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence – Clarke

Rittich / Talbot

Forward Carl Grundstrom did not practice today due to the lower-body injury he suffered last night in Buffalo. Grundstrom left the game in Western New York early in the second period and did not return, later being ruled out for the night. He’s now returned to Los Angeles for further examination. Head Coach Jim Hiller provided the following update on Grundstrom –

“Unfortunately, we don’t know the extent of it yet, but he has gone home though, so we can evaluate it a little closer with some of our guys,” Hiller said today. “We’ll find out more later, but for now, I can let you know he’s not here.”

Regarding Viktor Arvidsson, the watch continues. The Kings are eagerly awaiting Arvidsson’s return, and rightfully so. He’s a dynamic, game-changing forward when he’s in the lineup. With that being said, he’s coming off back surgery in October and that merits caution when working him back into the lineup and we’ve also got to temper expectations a bit. Zero sense in rushing him back. Another good practice for Arvidsson today as he worked in, once again, in the Top 6. For the first time today, he was solidly in a place on a line, alongside his usual running mates in Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore. Certainly some hope that tomorrow could be the day for Arvidsson and coming off a seven-goal defeat, any piece of help is welcomed.

“He’s getting close, you saw him out there, we’ll talk to [Head Athletic Trainer Chris Kingsley] again,” Hiller said today. “He’s getting close, is all that I can tell you. He’s got to make sure he feels good about where he’s at and we’ll see.”

On today’s line combinations, the Kings tried something different.

During last night’s defeat, the Kings were forced into some new combinations due to the injury to Grundstrom. With 11 forwards, we saw a lot of different ideas and combinations tried, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes out of a desire to try something, sometimes out of the circumstance of being down by several goals.

In the first period though, coming off a penalty, Hiller used a line of Pierre-Luc Dubois at center, between Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield. Made some sense coming right off a penalty as none of those players are on the PK. Immediately following a media timeout, however, Hiller put that line back out, before getting back to regular combinations a few shifts later. Three high-impact players who have never played together as a trio and who got a shift together at a point in the game when there wasn’t a direct reason to shake things up. That’s something a little bit different.

Today, we saw some additional changes made to the lines. Part of that came as the Kings ultimately work Arvidsson back into the mix. Whether or not it’s tomorrow, he’s coming back soon. All in all, Hiller noted it’s difficult to just keep things the same coming off a 7-0 defeat. A fresh look for today and we’ll see where that takes us.

“It’s hard to remain status quo after a game like that last night, there’s no question,” Hiller said. “We put Arvy up there, just to see what that looked like, to get him comfortable with his old guys, just to see if that can spur something from him. Then, we moved a few other guys around. I’m not sure if that’s what will be the lines tomorrow night, we just wanted to just give us a fresh look here this morning and then we’ll decide whether tomorrow night changes again.”

Seeing Arvidsson with his “old guys” is something that certainly got Danault and Moore excited.

Really, just seeing Arvidsson back on the ice is something that has been exciting for everyone in the group. He’s an important piece who brings a lot of different things to the team. Having him as close as he is, whether that’s tomorrow or perhaps this weekend, is something everyone is looking forward to.

Danault – I’m really excited, a righty, he brings a lot of different plays, different options on the ice and that’s what I like. Obviously he’s good defensively, good offensively, a really good addition for our team, that for sure.

Moore – It’s unreal, I’m so happy for him to be close. We need him, big time, you see him out there in practice, doing all the stuff that you get used to seeing Arvy do. We’re looking forward to having him back.

Whether he ultimately lines up there or not, Arvidsson adds a top-six winger into the mix, which either bolsters a line, or shuffles pieces around to bolster lines in other ways. Will dive in a little bit further tomorrow, with a deeper look into how these lines could roll out, should the Kings opt to use them against the Devils.

We’ll also dive into the reset the Kings know they need between games. More to come on that front as well, because everyone knew that Tuesday’s performance against the Sabres was unacceptable. The Kings have a way they need to play to win games and they know that last night wasn’t that. Still, there’s two points on the line tomorrow evening in the Garden State and they’ll do well to move past the Buffalo game and focus on what needs to be done to defeat the Devils.