1/30 Preview – Offensive Progress The Focus + Back-To-Back, Doughty/Clarke, 5-on-3’s

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (26-16-6) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (26-20-3)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Thursday, January 30 @ 4:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Amalie Arena – Tampa Bay, FL
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: Quick turnaround for the Kings, as they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning to complete a back-to-back set in Florida.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings skated to a 2-1 victory over Tampa Bay earlier this month back in Los Angeles.

Defenseman Mikey Anderson and forward Adrian Kempe scored in the victory, with Kempe burying the game-winning goal in the third period.

Since joining the Kings in 2021, forward Phillip Danault has led the team with four goals and six points versus the Lightning, including three points from three games here in Tampa Bay. Dating back to his time in Montreal, Danault led the Canadiens against Tampa Bay in scoring as well, with seven points (2-5-7) from nine games played.

KINGS VITALS: With the back-to-back, the Kings did not hold a morning skate in advance of tonight’s game.

With goaltender Darcy Kuemper getting the nod last night in Florida, expect goaltender David Rittich to start tonight’s game against the Lightning. Rittich has five career appearances against Tampa Bay, with a record of 0-2-1, a .862 save percentage and a 4.22 goals-against aveage.

For reference, here is how the team lined up last night in Florida –

Tonight's @LAKings Line Rushes –

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

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Spence
Moverare – Doughty

Kuemper
Rittich

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) January 29, 2025

Biggest question facing the Kings lineup decision tonight – will Drew Doughty go back-to-back?

Certainly didn’t have any training wheels on Game 1, playing just shy of 24 minutes in his return to the lineup. I certainly won’t be the guy suggesting that Drew Doughty can’t or won’t do something. There’s also defenseman Brandt Clarke, who missed his first game of the season last night in Tampa Bay. Feels like a reset opportunity for a young player. Expecting him back in the lineup soon.

Should the Kings look to make any additional changes, defensemen Kyle Burroughs and Andreas Englund are also available, along with Clarke.

LIGHTNING VITALS: Similar to the Kings, Tampa Bay enters tonight’s game with four losses from their last five games played.

Per Gabby Shirley of FanDuel Sports Network Florida, here’s how the Lightning aligned on Tuesday in Chicago –

a look at the #Bolts lines and D pairings from warmups:

Guentzel – Point – Kucherov
Hagel – Cirelli – Geekie
Girgensons – Paul – Goncalves
Eyssimont – Glendening – Chaffee

Hedman – Raddysh
McDonagh – Cernak
Carlile – Perbix

🥅 Johansson

— Gabby Shirley (@Gabby_Shirley_) January 28, 2025

Tampa Bay has two Kings draft picks currently in their lineup – defenseman Erik Cernak and forward Mikey Eyssimont.

Forwards Nikita Kucherov and Zemgus Girgensons did not practice yesterday, both designated with a “body maintenance” day. Both players are expected to play tonight against the Kings. Kucherov has nine goals and 23 points in his career versus Los Angeles.

Storyline Of The Day – Scoring Goals
Here are two quotes from last night’s post-game interviews. One from Drew Doughty, one from Warren Foegele.

Doughty – We’ve got to get more bodies to the net for sure. I know that’s the old saying, but we had some shots at the end, just floaters through that we didn’t get any sticks on, any bodies in front. Got to do that and it’s just about bearing down.

Foegele – At the end of the day, we’ve got to get bodies to the net and then we’ve got to get the puck to the net when guys are there. They kind of go hand in hand. It’s just winning battles at the end of the day, that’s what hockey is really about, winning 50/50’s. Pucks to the net, bodies to the net, don’t get beat up the ice, things like that. The margin is so close.

Pretty lockstep.

I thought Foegele had an interesting take, beyond this quote. He used a different word than the standard lines we’ve heard. In a separate quote from the one above, he said “possession.” What he meant was that while he wants to see the Kings get shots and get second opportunities, simply shooting it for the sake of shooting it isn’t working. That’s what Doughty was talking about. The power play has certainly been guilty of not shooting enough and you can’t circle the zone endlessly without any output. There’s a balance there.

Few goaltenders will get beat regularly on clean shots from the outside. And, let’s face it, the Kings don’t have a ton of guys who are scoring from those areas on a regular basis, especially right now. I think sometimes, though, the notion of keeping things simple could have the wrong consequence. I’ve preached it and while there’s merit to it, I was intrigued by Foegele’s comments as well. Possession in the offensive zone is important too, even if it’s just an extra cycle to get an extra body outside the crease. Both Doughty and Foegele think the team can do a better job of taking the right shots, the shots through traffic and the shots that lead to second and third chances and opportunities. That’s how this team can score.

There weren’t too many of those in Florida and that’ll have to change to get any kind of result tonight in Tampa Bay. There haven’t been very many this entire month, obviously. The Kings are last in the NHL in goals scored in January.

It’s not one thing that will get the Kings out of this. Will take a heck of a lot more than that. Kings can’t survive slumps offensively from 8-10 forwards and the defensive core at the same time. So, they need multiple players to get one. Then two. And build. Not going to be easy and the schedule tonight isn’t going to help. Time to dig in and work.

3 To Watch For –
– On Brandt Clarke, my understanding is that this is a bit of a reset for him. Jordan Spence had one early in the season. Alex Laferriere had one last year. If I recall back to when he was a younger player, I believe Adrian Kempe had one as well.

Seemed to work out well on all fronts there. Ultimately, I don’t know how Clarke will respond. I’d like to think he’ll bounce back exactly as Spence did back in October and how Laferriere did last season. For both of those players, it was one game out and right back in.

Yesterday, Jim Hiller spoke about how Clarke was thrust into Top-4 minutes pretty early in the season. At first, he handled it exceptionally well and Hiller reiterated that yesterday. He’s played a lot of good hockey. The grind has gotten tougher of late. It’s hard to think about this being Clarke’s first season in the NHL on a full-time basis. He’s never gone through this. A small dip in his play isn’t all that crazy.

I don’t know yet if he will play tonight. Will ask pre-game for sure. Hoping, certainly, that we see this in the long run as the same blip on the radar as many others have.

– Joke’s on us with Doughty, eh?

23:51 in his first game of the season. Played an extended shift late in the third period with the Kings down 2-0. He played on the first power-play unit and had 3 shot attempts. Only saw a bit of PK duty and admitted that he doesn’t fully know the system yet and it’ll take time for him to become familiar and contribute there. It’s also more taxing, so Doughty stayed off the kill by design.

So, will he play again tonight? I’m done making predictions. I would’ve taken the under on 23 minutes and I’d have lost my money. Immediately after the game, Doughty seemed to be feeling pretty good. Not always the same the next day, though. Again, will speak with Hiller at the rink in a few hours and will get a firm update on Doughty’s status and second-night availability.

– A troubling statistic, beyond the offense – The Kings have given up a 5-on-3 goal in back-to-back games. More troubling is that three of the four penalties committed have come in the offensive zone.

Warren Foegele took the lone defensive-zone penalty last night and took accountability post game for putting the team in a bad spot. I didn’t request to talk with Trevor Lewis but I’d imagine he’d have done the same. The penalty on Lewis was in the offensive zone, 200 feet from danger. Can’t take that penalty. Foegele’s came after the Kings nearly survived with a strong kill. Five seconds later, 1-0 was 2-0.

Right now, the margin for error is razor thin. I don’t know about you all, but the goal to make it 2-0 felt like a backbreaker. Hard to see three goals in the third period right now for the Kings, especially against Florida. No excuses on those types of penalties and when goals are as hard to come by as they are right now, can’t have those types of lapses.

Kings and Lightning, second to last of five straight here on the road. Time to turn things around.