Practice 10/11 – A good understanding of Buffalo Game + Today’s Practice, No Changes Expected vs. BOS

Good to be back, Insiders!

Practice day in Boston, as the Kings hit the ice at Warrior Ice Arena.

We’re into the season now. As such, practices will start to look a little bit different. During training camp, the Kings went harder, they went longer, they got more physical and more taxing. In talking with Jim Hiller since he took over as the Head Coach, his mantra has been to run full, hard practices when the team has the time, but to maximize rest and recovery when the schedule became more compact.

For the remainder of this trip, there won’t be a ton of opportunities. The Kings practice today and play tomorrow. They’ll be off on Sunday, play on Monday. Today’s practice, on a day in between games, worked on a couple of target areas, but it was not a long or taxing skate. The Kings were on the ice for around a half hour or so, got things moving and took care of business. With the early game tomorrow, there won’t be a morning skate tomorrow so the Kings practiced today. There were a few things to work on.

The Kings knew last night in Buffalo wasn’t their finest effort, but they grinded and wound up earning the two points.

And I don’t mean they knew it in a whatever kind of way. They know how they got the job done.

“Darcy kept us in that game really, no doubt about that,” forward Trevor Moore said. “We won, so it’s good, but I wouldn’t say that was a good example of resilience, I guess. I think that was more Darcy standing on his head, and then Kopi taking over.”

Jim Hiller indicated that after watching the game back, things became even clearer than they were last night.

If you watched Hiller’s post-game availability, too, it felt pretty clear in the moment too.

“We see it clearer, I would say, we didn’t play well and it was very clear the areas of the game that we didn’t play well,” Hiller said. “It was clearer on video, it was more often than we thought and it explained a lot of the speed that was coming at us in the game.”

The players who stepped up to secure the two points were the players you want to step up, if you will – Anze Kopitar and Darcy Kuemper, as Moore highlighted. Someone needed to and it was a pair of veterans, a pair of Stanley Cup Champions, who got the job done.

One the longtime captain of the Los Angeles Kings and the other an offseason acquisition with a point to prove, a goaltender who is returning to his former club in search of returning to form. Kuemper was the star of the show through 40 minutes. Kopitar took over in the center of the stage in the third, recording his second hat trick in his last four opening nights.

Buffalo had been a house of horrors for the Kings in recent years. You want to know a sobering stat? The last member of the Kings to score a goal in Buffalo was Dustin Brown, who was in attendance for last night’s win. Pretty much sums up recent seasons in Western New York.

“Generally, your goaltender has a chance to keep you in or win you a game or save you a game, however you want to describe it, whether it’s Kuemps, Rittich or the goalies we’ve had here in the past,” Hiller said. “That’s a critical position and then, sometimes, somebody has to go make a play, make a big play. Last night it was Kopi a couple times. We don’t expect it to be Kopi every time, but somebody has to step up and he’s done it quite often here in his career.”

Hiller added that the Kings won’t “beat it up” when referring to last night’s performance. It’s early in the season, Game 1 early, and the Kings had a bad night. That much was clear. There were some encouraging signs in the third period and perhaps with that came the right mindset in that situation. Moore and defenseman Joel Edmundson both agreed that the third period was much better, with both having been through rough patches throughout their respective careers.

“Those games games can be frustrating, stressful, but when you’ve been in the league for 10+ years, you’ve seen it all and you just stay in the moment,” Edmundson said. “Especially in that situation, it’s just one shot away from tying the game up. We leaned heavily on our leaders and it paid off.”

The important thing is to not let it become any sort of a trend.

The Kings survived last night and they walked out of Buffalo with two points. They likely won’t get away with the same performance twice, with the Boston Bruins next on the schedule. The good thing is, the Kings move forward and we do so with two points in the Bank of Los Angeles. 1-0 is 1-0, no matter how you slice it.

“We didn’t have a good game and we can play a lot better, but nobody remembers this when we get into April and we’re fighting for these last few points to secure a playoff spot,” Hiller added. “We’ll take it and move on.”

On the subject of moving on, looking ahead, the Kings hit the ice today as a full group, with all 23 players on the active roster taking the ice. That group lined up similarly to yesterday, listed below –

Laferriere – Kopitar – Kempe
Jeannot – Danault – Moore
Fiala – Byfield – Foegele
Lee – Turcotte – Lewis – Thomas

Anderson – Spence
Gavrikov – Burroughs
Edmundson – Clarke
Englund – Jones

Kuemper / Rittich

Hiller indicated he is not expecting any changes with regards to the lineup for tomorrow’s game versus Boston. It’s an afternoon puck drop tomorrow and there won’t be a morning skate to assess things, so good to get that one out of the way. Typically, you don’t throw out the playbook after one game, good or bad, on Opening Night. Lots going on there with regards to the circumstances and the Kings faced a Buffalo squad playing Game 3, as opposed to Game 1. Perhaps an angry Buffalo squad, after dropping its first two games of the season in Prague against the Devils. An amped up crowd for the first game at home. Lots to digest, certainly, and we wipe the slate clean for another test tomorrow.

To put it simply, it’s on to Boston.

The Kings and Bruins just met in the preseason, a rare exhibition contest between the two clubs.

In that game in Quebec City, the Kings felt they executed very well. Lots of good things in that game, as Los Angeles controlled the play 5-on-5. That was the preseason though. As we saw last night, the speed, the intensity and the physicality is levels higher come the regular season. The Kings will need to up in those areas against a strong opponent. Boston dropped six yesterday in Montreal and we all know what happens when the Kings and Bruins get together in Boston. Goals, fights and overtime.

Will have a couple of reactions in tomorrow’s game preview from Brandt Clarke, who had quite the first career NHL goal in Boston last year, as well as Hiller, who understood what this game meant last season and what tomorrow’s game should bring. A matinee in Beantown. Always a banger.

Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images