Practice 12/3 – Kuemper Talks Injury, Lewis out “4-6 Weeks”, Latest on Doughty/Jones/Kaliyev/Thomas

Back at it, Insiders.

The LA Kings returned to the ice for a full-team practice day here in El Segundo. First skate for the team since November 28. Been a busy schedule for the Kings here, with afternoon games on Friday and Saturday, followed by a team off day on Sunday and the annual Kings Golf Tournament on Monday afternoon, which kept the Kings off the ice until this morning. Today, the Kings returned to the ice for a full-team skate that was on the longer side.

“They had two days without being on the ice for practice, that probably comes at a good time, we had a busy schedule until then,” Hiller said. “We feel really fresh coming into today’s practice. Good practice today, then a couple of practice days before we head out [to New York], so I think we’re in really good shape, as far as players being rested and energized. We don’t have to manage that too much, we can push them hard in practice right now.”

Here’s how the Kings aligned today, for said pushed hard practice –

Moore – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Jeannot
Fiala – Danault – Laferriere
Lee – Helenius – Turcotte
(Thomas, Kaliyev)

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Englund – Burroughs
(Jones)

Rittich
Kuemper
Portillo

Few updates here.

First things first, sounds like Trevor Lewis will be out of the lineup for a bit here. Jim Hiller insinuated as much after the game on Saturday against the Senators, a Kings victory at home in which Lewis played just two shifts before leaving with a lower-body injury midway through the first period. Lewis is out for approximately 4-6 weeks, which will keep him out of the lineup into the new year.

Tough blow for a well-respected veteran who is sitting on Game 999 in the NHL, on the verge of 1,200 total as a professional player. He’ll get to the 1,000-game mark in time, but it’ll likely come now in the new year somewhere in 2025. In his absence, the Kings will look towards younger players like Samuel Helenius, Andre Lee and Akil Thomas, once healthy, for additional opportunities.

Regarding goaltender Darcy Kuemper, he was back on the ice today in a full participation capacity. Kuemper has been out of action since November 13, when he left the game in Colorado with a lower-body injury suffered during the third period.

“I think it was Manson who came down, took a shot off the rush I hurt myself on that play,” Kuemper said today. “I stayed in there for a couple of more plays, trying to pus through it, but it was getting worse on me, so I couldn’t really move.”

Kuemper noted that he communicated to a couple of the team’s defensemen that he wasn’t 100 percent, which allowed them to relay the information to the bench to alert David Rittich that he might be needed. He ultimately was, and we haven’t seen Kuemper back in the lineup since.

Was also able to confirm today that Kuemper’s injury was unrelated to his injury back in October.

Talked with Darcy Kuemper today, who shared that his injury was not the same one that cost him a few games earlier this season.

Will have his recap of what exactly happened in today’s practice report.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) December 3, 2024

Strange situation in the moment, but it appears as if he’s close to being ready to return in full. As we know with goaltenders, there’s only full and not at all.

“He’s out of the red, I haven’t talked to him yet after practice, but he got out of the red and I didn’t hear anything,” Hiller said of Kuemper. “He was there until the end, so I would say he’s getting very close.”

Should Kuemper be ready, the Kings would likely assign goaltender Erik Portillo back to Ontario. Portillo was the first player on the ice for today’s practice, working with goaltending coach Mike Buckley for some additional instruction. Not sure if he’ll be back down today, as the Reign host Texas, but assuming Kuemper is ready to rock, would expect we’d see Portillo back down for a weekend back-to-back coming up for the Reign, which would mean that Kuemper is an option in net no later than the Minnesota game this weekend, if not for tomorrow versus Dallas.

Also on the ice today was a trio of players in red jerseys – Caleb Jones, Arthur Kaliyev and Akil Thomas.

“They were excirted to be out there, I can tell you that,” Hiller said. “As much as we don’t like having that many guys in practice for different reasons, they were excited, so it’s good to see them back out there. It gets awfully boring when you’re skating by yourself, or with one or two other guys, so they were really, really excited.”

Jones was back for practice on Thursday, joining the team towards the end of their skate.

For Thomas, he’s on injured reserve as of Saturday, but his return to the ice today for practice makes it seem is if it wasn’t particularly long term. With Kaliyev, today is the first day he’s been back with the full group since he initially suffered his injury on the first weekend of training camp. Great sign. Not sure how close Kaliyev is specifically, and his runway is likely longer still than the other two, but it is encouraging to see him back with his teammates for the first time today.

“He’s got some work to do, he only had two days of training camp, but I know he’s working hard, he’s on the ice now, he’s in the gym, he’s doing a lot of work, so I’m not exactly sure [where he’s at] he’s just behind. It’s really going to be dependent upon him, when he rejoins us for practice, to see where he is. We have no idea how he measures up to the guys who have been playing.”

Hiller was also again asked about Drew Doughty, who has yet to return to the ice at this time.

Hiller shared he talked with Doughty today and the veteran defenseman told him he “feels great” and in seeing him walk, he looked to be moving well. He added though that a return to the ice is “far away yet”, so nothing really here to report.

As for how today’s updates could impact how the Kings move forward, the answer is likely, in the interim, that it won’t impact much.

The Kings only have two games this week and both are at home. The Reign play tonight, Friday and Saturday, with two of those games coming at home and the other just down the road in San Diego. The day to look out for is Sunday, when the Kings depart for New York to begin a seven-game roadtrip. I can’t imagine the Kings will want to take that trip with only 12 healthy forwards, so depending on where Thomas and Kaliyev are at, we’ll see if the Kings make a move between now and then, or if perhaps one or both players are on that trip.

So, for tomorrow’s game against Dallas, I’d expect the group that is here now to be the group that is available for the game versus the Stars. If a forward is needed, the Kings would need to place Lewis on injured reserve in order to add a player to the active roster. Until tomorrow!