11/2 Preview – Consistency Is Key + No Morning Skate, Laferriere’s Goals, Kopitar 800 A

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (6-3-2) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (3-7-1)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Saturday, November 2 @ 1:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Fan Duel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings conclude their California-stand this afternoon as they host the Chicago Blackhawks in a matinee puck drop.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings and Blackhawks meet today for the first of three games this season, following a 3-0-0 mark for the Kings in 2023-24.

Forward Anze Kopitar scored four goals from the three matchups, while forward Adrian Kempe led the way with six assists and seven total points. Kempe’s seven points were tied for the second most in the NHL by any player against Chicago throughout last season, while just two players scored more goals than Kopitar did.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings conclude a stretch of five consecutive games played in the State of California, as they host the Blackhawks.

Without a morning skate today, there’s not a certainty on tonight’s starting goaltender, but coming off consecutive victories, signs would point towards Darcy Kuemper getting the nod between the pipes. Kuemper has a lifetime record of 8-2-1 against Chicago, with a .925 save percentage and a 2.23 goals-against average.

Here’s how the Kings lined up during Wednesday’s win over Vegas –

Tonight’s @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Englund – Spence

Kuemper
Rittich

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 31, 2024

There was not a morning skate with the 1 PM puck drop, so it’s unclear if there will be any changes to the lineup here today.

Jim Hiller spoke yesterday about matching defensemen up against certain opposition, especially at home, so there could be a change made there. Should the Kings opt for one, defensemen Kyle Burroughs and Caleb Jones would both be options to check in, as would be forward Andre Lee up front.

CHICAGO VITALS: The Blackhawks are currently on their fourth of five stops on their current five-game roadtrip, bringing with them a 1-2-0 record to date.

Per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun Times, here’s how the Blackhawks lined up on Thursday against San Jose –

Blackhawks lines in warmups vs. Sharks are as expected:

Kurashev-Bedard-Teravainen
Hall-Foligno-Bertuzzi
Mikheyev-Dickinson-Donato
Maroon-Reichel-Smith

Kaiser-Jones
Vlasic-Murphy
Allan-Brodie

Mrazek

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) November 1, 2024

Via Pope, goaltender Petr Mrazek will get the nod between the pipes this afternoon for the visitors. Mrazek is currently the NHL’s most-utilized goaltender, with today being his tenth appearance of the season. Mrazek has faced the Kings eight times throughout his professional career, posting a record of 3-3-1, with a .936 save percentage and a 1.92 goals-against average.

Chicago got multiple points from forwards Ryan Donato (1-1-2) and Philipp Kurashev (0-2-2) during the three matchups against the Kings last season.

The Blackhawks have two siblings of Kings players – forward Joey Anderson, brother of Mikey, and defenseman Seth Jones, brother of Caleb – on their roster.

Storyline Of The Day – Consistency Is Key
Wednesday’s win over Vegas was pretty universally agreed within the locker room to be the most compete 60 minutes played by the Kings this season.

It’s been talked about quite a bit. Perhaps it begs another question, though. We’re talking about it so much because it’s the first time the Kings have reached that level so far this season, or perhaps the second time, with the Montreal game also being a strong showing. In between has been a smattering of results and performances. The results have really been fine, with the Kings 6-3-2 coming into today. The performances, though, have a different question being asked.

How do the Kings make Wednesday’s performance the norm, not the exception?

“It’s a great question, it’s the same question I asked this morning I asked the guys,” Hiller said. “There’s 82 games. [Sometimes] you feel good, sometimes not great, sometimes you’re fresh, sometimes an opponent is coming in hot, like Vegas was, there’s all different factors. It’s long, it’s a marathon, so how do you emotionally, as a team, get yourselves up, because not everybody’s going to be at their peak every night, so where’s the energy going to come from? Where’s the core that’s going to bring enough energy for the other guys to follow along? It better be there [today].

All of that, I think, to say that the Kings want to raise the floor. You won’t hit the ceiling every night, but the floor can’t be what it was in San Jose either. The game in San Jose was not acceptable to meet the standards this team has set. The effort against Vegas was much stronger and it’s a performance they want to replicate.

Now, consistency is the name of the game.

Hiller called it the “hardest challenge” facing a professional team.

That type of showing is obviously in there and it was a lot of fun to watch. The Kings got contributions throughout their lineup and did a lot of really good things. They knew their performance in San Jose on Tuesday was not good enough. It was clearly a group that was determined to correct that.

Sharing this quote from Adrian Kempe following the win against the Golden Knights. Consistency is key.

“Consistency is something that we’re going to have to bring a little more often and be something that we have to be prepared for, both mentally and physically before every game,” he said. “I think it was a good bounce back [on Wednesday], we showed that earlier in season, after the Toronto game too, we bounced back in Montreal the night after. On the other side of it, I think we’ve just got to keep building on this. Obviously we can’t have nights like [Tuesday] against any team.”

In speaking with others after yesterday’s practice, there seemed to be a lot of agreement.

“I think it’s a mindset,” forward Alex Turcotte said. “I think that’s a good part of it. We were pretty upset about how we played [in San Jose] and honestly, I don’t think we really deserved to win that game, so we were pretty upset about that. I think we came in with a good attitude the next day, the right mindset and we followed the gameplan. It’s not going to go perfect every night, but there should be a baseline of how we come in. It won’t be pretty every night but that’s a key to me.”

Alex Laferriere turned a nice phrase when I asked him the same question.

“You can’t play a full 60 minutes if you don’t start right away.”

Against San Jose, the Kings took two minor penalties before the game was even four minutes old. It took until the first intermission for the team to get back on track, which was too long, but the start killed a large chunk of that period.

Today against Chicago, the Kings have to be on it, right from the start, and carry that level throughout the game. A lot of what they did versus Vegas is sustainable. It can be replicated. With another performance like that today, the Kings will give themselves a good chance to win the game. If they can do that more and more, if it starts to become the norm, and we’re talking about the outliers being the other way, that’s when we’ll be onto something.

3 To Watch For –
– In speaking with Laferriere, it was an interview with the team’s leading goalscorer.

Laferriere has six goals, leading all Kings in that category at the end of October. What would he have said if someone told him that at the start of the season?

“Probably that I got a couple of lucky bounces.”

Said it with a smile, though.

Laferriere has gotten his goals in different ways, including good movement into the slot on Wednesday, before he collected and shot the puck, seemingly in one motion, showcasing the quick release he worked on in the offseason, as well as an improved ability to get the puck through. He’s also gotten to the net well, scoring twice on deflections, embracing the “uncomfortable” nature of getting there.

Laferriere called it a part of his game, saying he “loves to get to the net.”

He pointed out that fewer and fewer goals are scored from the perimeter, without traffic, and it takes forwards getting to the blue paint to get dirtier goals. While many have taken on that challenge, Laferriere has done it as well as most.

– Last game, Anze Kopitar collected his 800th career assist, becoming the 35th player in NHL history to reach that number.

Also included among the 800 are four players who played in Los Angeles – Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, Marcel Dionne and Larry Murphy – in addition to forward Pierre Turgeon, who was here as an assistant coach.

Last season was the season of Kopitar. Felt like he had a milestone every other game. When he was congratulated by a member of the media, he just kind of laughed. Add 800 to the club.

“I don’t know what could be said that hasn’t been said already, other than he’s another year older, and he just keeps going,” Hiller added. “All the great things that have been said about him over his career, but the fact that he’s still able to be that impactful at that age is pretty incredible.”

Hiller joked that Kopitar might have more milestone pucks at his house than any other player in hockey and he might be right. Another one, though, as he approaches 450 goals, 1250 points and 1400 games played.

– Lastly, following up on a stat from the other day.

With Joel Edmundson’s goal against Vegas, the Kings now have eight goals from their defensemen this season. The Kings trail only Seattle (10) in goals scored by defensemen and only Colorado / Winnipeg (34) in points from defensemen. Overall, Kings defensemen have accounted for 32.6 percent of the team’s points this season, the highest total around the NHL.

Continuing to produce from the point, helping to supplement a few slower starts up front, is a nice safety net to have.

Kings and Blackhawks, early puck drop today at Crypto.com Arena. Nick Nickson back on the mic for the 1 PM start!