11/5 Preview – Anderson and Spence reunited + Fiala’s return trip, Clarke keeps adding points, Kopi’s latest historic feat

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (7-3-3) at Minnesota Wild (8-1-2)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Tuesday, November 5 @ 5:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Xcel Energy Center – St. Paul, MN
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @ShafReign & @lakings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The LA Kings are set to play the second game of a back-to-back on the road tonight in Minnesota against the Wild.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: This season’s three-game series between LA and Minnesota will see the Kings travel to St. Paul twice and host the Wild at Crypto.com Arena once next month on Dec. 7. A year ago, the Kings went 2-1-0 against the Wild, winning the first two contests with big offensive outputs by scores of 7-3 and 6-0 before falling 3-1 in the penultimate game of the 2023-24 regular season.

Forward Kevin Fiala led the Kings with five points from the three matchups against his former team with a goal and four assists, while forward Adrian Kempe posted four points with a goal and three helpers in the series. Forwards Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore also each had a goal and two assists against Minnesota. Goaltender David Rittich started the second game of last year’s series vs. the Wild and did not allow a goal, posting a 31-save shutout on March 20.

KINGS VITALS: It’s never too early to look at the standings, and the Kings are in a position to take over the top spot in the Pacific if they can manage to come away with any amount of points tonight. That’s pretty impressive considering that after today’s game, they will have played only four of their first 14 contests at home.

With no morning skate today before the back-to-back, which included travel from Nashville to Minnesota late last night, we won’t know if the team will change any of the personnel in the lineup until later this afternoon.

On one hand, it seems fair to assume that David Rittich could be in line to make his seventh start of the season in between the pipes. But on the other, it’d also be fair to consider another opportunity for Darcy Kuemper, who is coming off a shutout performance that consisted of a lighter workload with just 16 shots faced.

Kuemper has a lifetime record of 4-6-1 against Minnesota with a 0.901 save percentage and a 2.98 goals-against average, while Rittich is 4-0-1 in his career against the Wild while carrying a 0.931 save percentage and a 2.33 goals-against.

Below, a refresher on the lineup the Kings deployed during Monday night’s 3-0 win in Nashville –

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

Anderson – Spence
Edmundson – Clarke
Gavrikov – Burroughs

Kuemper
Rittich

Up front, the big question is if Alex Turcotte will be able to return after missing the third period in Nashville last night. Turcotte took a hard hit along the boards from Jeremy Lauzon late in the second and looked to be experiencing discomfort. He got up immediately and went to the bench, then played one more shift before the end of the period. He did not return for the final frame and Jim Hiller didn’t offer much on his status after the game, saying “I don’t have anything specific other than I talked to him. He’s gonna be alright. I’m not sure when he’ll be able to get back in, but he’s fine.”

Without Turcotte, the Kings can elect to bring big forward Andre Lee back into the lineup. Lee is the only extra forward the team is carrying on the roster during this road trip. Hiller and his staff can also opt to go with 11 forwards and seven defenders, however, as both Andreas Englund and Caleb Jones are available on the back end. 11/7 is certainly a potential decision that can’t be counted out, as Hiller was comfortable using that type of formation for the group down the stretch last season.

MINNESOTA VITALS: The Wild enter tonight’s matchup as one of the hottest teams in the NHL to begin the 2024-25 regular season. Minnesota has won three consecutive games, including a 2-1 overtime victory over Toronto in its most recent outing, and has victories in seven of their last eight contests overall since Oct. 15. Tonight represents the completion of a three-game homestand for the Wild, which began with a 5-3 win over Pittsburgh a week ago and also featured a 5-3 defeat of Tampa Bay on Friday.

Per Sarah McLellan of the Minnesota Star Tribune, here’s how the Wild lined up during their most recent win over the Maple Leafs –

#mnwild in warmups vs. Maple Leafs:

Kaprizov-Rossi-Zuccarello
Johansson-Eriksson Ek-Boldy
Foligno-Gaudreau-Hartman
Lauko-Khusnutdinov-Trenin
Middleton-Faber
Brodin-Spurgeon
Chisholm-Bogosian
Gustavsson

— Sarah McLellan (@sarah__mclellan) November 3, 2024

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson has gotten most of the minutes in net early in the season for Minnesota, starting eight of the team’s 11 games and posting a 6-1-1 record with strong numbers of a 0.924 save percentage and 2.12 goals-against average. In six previous games against LA, Gustavsson is 2-3-0 with a 0.932 save percentage and a 2.16 goals-against. 40-year-old veteran Marc-Andre Fleury has seen more limited action in a traditional backup role to begin the year, with the veteran compiling a 2-0-1 record in three starts with a 0.899 save percentage and a 2.93 goals-against average in what will be his final NHL campaign. During his 21-year career, Fleury is 12-11-4 against the Kings in 28 appearances with a 0.908 save percentage and a 2.81 goals-against.

Kirill Kaprizov had a team-high three points against the Kings in last season’s series with two goals and an assist in the three meetings (2-1-3). Unsurprisingly, Kaprizov is off to a smoking start this season with 21 points in just 11 games on seven goals and 14 assists along with a plus-12 rating. His scoring total is currently tied for the NHL league lead alongside Sam Reinhart and Cale Makar, with six of Kaprizov’s seven goals coming at even strength.

Matt Boldy has also registered over a point-per-game with six goals and seven assists from 11 contests.

Storyline Of The Day – Anderson and Spence Reunited for Success
The Kings elected to make a change to their defensive deployment for Monday’s game in Nashville, realigning the pairings to feature Mikey Anderson alongside Jordan Spence.

It wasn’t a new idea, as that’s how the team opened the season with the two playing alongside each other for the first three games before moving Vladislav Gavrikov over to the right side with Anderson before Game No. 4 in Toronto last month.

So let’s take a look at how the two former fourth-round picks fared together last night in what was a 3-0 win for LA.

First of all, the entire team should receive credit for a great defensive effort, allowing just 16 shots on goal, which featured both a great start and end to the game. The Kings held Nashville to just two shots on net in the first 11:22 of the opening frame and then didn’t allow anything to get through to Kuemper for the first 16 minutes of the third. Usually, when you can achieve those types of numbers, you’re set up for success.

Specifically for Anderson and Spence, the two had the highest expected goal percentage of any Kings defensive pair during 5-on-5 (0.844), as well as the lowest expected goals against (0.143) in 9:21 of even-strength ice time.

They were able to help control 17 shot attempts in that span while allowing just seven against for a 70.8% Corsi.

Spence, now in his fourth pro season, has experienced the night-to-night grind of the NHL and is seeing ice time in all situations. While the offensive numbers show he still hasn’t reached his full potential on the attack, his defensive focus is more of the focus in this type of role where he’s in a position to see more minutes against the opponent’s top players.

For Anderson, his calm affable demeanor should help no matter who sees the minutes on his right side. The 25-year-old is set to play in his home state this evening, about a 20-minute drive from where he attended Hill-Murray High School.

While navigating a new partner, he’s also looking to get the puck to the net a bit more and has attempted 45 shots in 13 games, which has him on pace for a career-high in that category. Certainly a small sample size this early in the season, but it is important while he’s still logging an average of 22 minutes per night.

The unenviable task of splitting up the minutes on the right side of the team’s defense in the absence of Drew Doughty has been the biggest challenge of the season for LA, and that won’t change until whenever No. 8 is ready to return.

When Anderson and Spence had their first chance together, it was relatively short-lived. Now we’ll see if reuniting them a second time may have some longer legs. The Kings certainly hope so, as it’s nice to have Gavrikov in a position to anchor another pair, which he did last night alongside Kyle Burroughs.

3 To Watch For –
– After scoring in a visit to the city where he began his NHL career on Monday, Kevin Fiala continues his return tour trip Tuesday in Minnesota to face a team he played 215 games for during four seasons from 2018-22.

Fiala’s goal last night in the first minute of the third period was his sixth of the season and helped extend his current point streak to four games (2-4-6), which dates back to Oct. 26 when the Kings defeated Utah at home.

It’s certainly been the response both Fiala and the Kings were hoping for after he was held out of last week’s game in San Jose. Since being reinserted into the lineup against Vegas on Wednesday, Fiala has five points in three games, including two goals and three assists, while his line chemistry with Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore is back to what we’ve seen from that trio in the past.

Moore, who set up Fiala’s goal on Monday, said after the game that he felt they just needed a little more time to get back to where they knew they could be.

“It seems like we just had to stick with it,” Moore said. “This game can be frustrating sometimes, and you’ve got to keep pushing and stay committed. We know each other well; we’re good buddies and we just try to stick with the program and keep pushing.”

Fiala’s had significant offensive success against both of his former teams in the past. The Switzerland native has recorded points in each of his past four games against Nashville while compiling a total of 10 points (7-4-10) in 15 career contests against the Predators.

Since Minnesota dealt him to LA in a trade with the Kings prior to the 2022-23 campaign, Fiala has produced eight points (2-6-8) in six contests against the Wild, including five points (1-4-5) in the past three meetings.

– It’s hard to not highlight Brandt Clarke in this section, as he’s become a player to watch nightly for the Kings.

Clarke had the primary helper on Anze Kopitar’s opening goal in the first period on Monday, giving him 11 through LA’s first 13 games this season. The Ottawa native enters tonight’s game as the team leader in assists, trailing only Colorado’s Cale Makar (16) and Winnipeg’s Josh Morrisey (13) for the most among NHL defenders this season.

“I think as every game has gone by, I feel more stable with the surroundings, with the teammates, and just my overall game,” Clarke said after Monday’s morning skate. “Things are going good and I feel great right now.”

The 21-year-old is also tied for second on the Kings in points with 12 (1-11-12), trailing only Kopitar (5-9-14). As he prepares for just his second career game against Minnesota this evening, Clarke is as hot as any player on the Kings, scoring seven points (1-6-7) over his last five.

He is the fourth blueliner in Kings history at age 21 or younger to record 12 points through the first 13 games of a season.

While Clarke can be credited for his offensive creativity, he recently shed more light on what it’s been like to play with veteran Joel Edmundson, who he’s built a good relationship with.

“The communication we’ve had has gone a long way to build a trust in where each other are and to move pucks to each other,” Clarke said. He has trust in me to do my thing and I trust him that he can always shut plays down and whatnot. When he’s below the goal line, I’m almost confident we’re getting the puck 99% of the time. It allows me to kind of activate at other points. He’s been great and I’m grateful to be his partner.”

As they’ve become more familiar, they’ve found an offensive strategy that works well for both of them, with different types of play to complement each other.

“I think when we go low to high, whether I can get a shot right away, or whether we move it D-to-D and then get a shot, we just want to create danger as much as we can. Whether that be point shots, moving a little bit lateral and then getting it through, I think we want to create havoc in front of the net and usually it’s a rebound or a tip, but lately for Eddie, it’s just pucks that haven’t been touched and just keep going through. That’s great to see as well, there’s a lot of emphasis on creating havoc when we’re the zone.”

Safe to say that the Kings will be continuing to count on the Edmundson/Clarke partnership for as many minutes as they can handle moving forward, with Clarke looking to grow his contributions at both 5-on-5 and on the man-advantage to keep up his near point per game pace.

– Kopitar’s first period goal ended up being the game-winner during the Kings shutout performance Monday night.

The captain is now tied for the league lead in game-winning goals this season with three, including a strike against Vegas last week and the third tally of his opening night hat trick in Buffalo last month.

It seems that not a night goes by when Kopitar doesn’t further etch himself into the record books. With his 74th career game-winning goal, Kopitar moved past Luc Robitaille for sole possession of the most game-winners in franchise history.

He also had his 70th career game-opening goal, which tied him with Marcel Dionne for the most in team history, surpassing Robitaille, who had 69 during his Kings career.

The Kings look to sweep their back-to-back and return to Southern California with a first place position in the Pacific. Josh Schaefer and Jim Fox have the call of LA and Minnesota on FanDuel Sports Network at 5 PM!