3/5 Preview – Smacking Back vs. St. Louis + Clarke In, Helenius Recalled, Top Line Focus

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (31-20-8) vs. St. Louis Blues (29-26-8)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Wednesday, March 5 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings are back at home as they begin a stretch with five of six games coming in Los Angeles.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: These two teams played on Saturday in St. Louis, as the Kings fell by a 4-1 score against the Blues that evening at Enterprise Center.

Forward Kevin Fiala scored the only goal for the Kings in that game, a power-play goal, with defenseman Drew Doughty and forward Anze Kopitar collecting the assists. Kopitar is just shy of a point-per-game against the Blues throughout his career, with 64 points (20-44-64) from 65 career games played.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings held a full-team morning skate today in El Segundo, following the team day off on Tuesday.

Based on today’s skate, goaltender Darcy Kuemper is the projected starter tonight. Kuemper, who did not start against the Blues on the road on Saturday, brings with him a record of 9-6-0, with a .916 save percentage and a 2.54 goals-against average.

Here’s how the Kings aligned this morning –

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

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Doughty
Moverare – Clarke
Burroughs – Spence

Kuemper
Rittich

Expecting defenseman Brandt Clarke to check back into the lineup tonight after he was scratched for the past two games. Clarke took rushes with Jacob Moverare and skated on the second power-play unit this morning. Forward Samuel Helenius will play as well, with the Kings using 12 forwards up front and six defensemen, as confirmed this morning by Head Coach Jim Hiller.

Defensemen Jordan Spence and Kyle Burroughs, along with forward Akil Thomas, are set to be scratched tonight.

BLUES VITALS: St. Louis saw its four-game winning streak, which included a win over the Kings, snapped on Sunday against Dallas in a 6-3 loss.

Per Matthew DeFranks of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, here’s how the visitors lined up last time out versus the Stars –

Blues during warmup in Dallas:
Neighbours-Thomas-Buchnevich
Holloway-Schenn-Kyrou
Joseph-Sundqvist-Bolduc
Toropchenko-Faksa-Walker

Fowler-Parayko
Broberg-Faulk
Suter-Leddy

Hofer
Binnington

— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) March 2, 2025

Blues forward Dylan Holloway collected a goal and an assist in the victory over the Kings over the weekend, while defenseman Colton Parayko and forwards Zach Bolduc and Pavel Buchnevich also scored for St. Louis. Holloway’s goal was his first against the Kings in the regular season, though he scored twice versus Los Angeles in Game 2 of last season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, then as a member of the Oilers.

Storyline Of The Day – Smack ‘Em Back
“St. Louis smacked us, we’ll be better in the next game.”

There’s got to be an emotional response tonight, right?

Honestly, I feel like I’m less concerned with the result. Just show me the LA Kings, you know? If the Kings play that way, they’ll win games. Drew Doughty delivered the quote above and he added that when the Kings deviate from their style of hockey, they’ve gotten “dominated”. The recent trip saw two losses by four goals and one by three. Certainly not the team we’ve seen for the bulk of the first 50 games this season.

I think that’s why there isn’t a ton of concern right now. We haven’t seen those types of games regularly this season.

That team is still there, but it’s also not just going to change because I write that it needs to. Or that the players and coaches are saying that it needs to. Starts with emotion. Starts with intensity. Starts with desperation. Starts with pride. Words we’ve heard over the last few days. As Adrian Kempe put it, they’re only words until they show up on the ice.

“We’ve talked about it before, but it’s easy to just sit there and say stuff,” Kempe said. “You’ve got to go out and do it on the ice.”

Forward Warren Foegele added that the Kings owe the Blues a better effort than the one they delivered on Saturday. He felt the Blues went out and executed the way the Kings want to play at a higher level than the Kings did. Dose of their own medicine, if you will. St. Louis travels to California sitting just one point out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. While there’s a gap, they’re only six points behind the Kings. That team will bring those qualities. Kings need to do the same.

“It’ll be an emotional game,” Doughty added. “We need that, we don’t have enough emotion in here. That’s one thing I think all the leadership guys are watching for, the emotion, the urgency. We didn’t have enough of that for the three games [on the road].”

To deliver in those areas as a team, it starts with each individual making sure that he is ready to go.

From a leadership perspective, defenseman Mikey Anderson added that there’s things he and other team leaders can do during games to make sure that the team stays engaged and on their game for 60 minutes. In Chicago, the Kings came out like gangbusters but the second period was a drop-off.

“It’s on us to stay engaged throughout a game, make sure guys are talking, we’re helping each other out, there’s a lot of things to do to try and keep it up,” defenseman Mikey Anderson added. “I think a big thing for us is to stay positive, we’ve done enough good this year to let it go that bad. I trust the room, I think everyone’s got faith that we’ll be ready to go.”

3 To Watch For –
– On Brandt Clarke, expecting him to play tonight and play on the second power play. He will play as one of six defensemen tonight, so that comes with an increased role in the lineup.

Jim Hiller was asked if Clarke’s offensive abilities specifically factored into him coming back in. He certainly knows that Clarke is a player who can make plays but also added that around the NHL, as the calendar flips into March, the plays that are available are harder to come by. Making them at the right times is encouraged, but he doesn’t want to see players, even extremely gifted ones like Clarke, chase offense at the expense of something the other way.

“There’s less plays, offensive plays, to be made [at this time of the year] because it’s tight up there, but when you have the opportunity and Clarkie, he has the ability in those moments, is to make the play at that time, but you can’t chase it, nobody can chase it. It’s a dangerous recipe this time of the year.”

Like Kevin Fiala, Clarke needs some freedom to operate, but right now, the coaching staff wants it to come within the overall system. That seems to be the message tonight as he re-enters the lineup.

– On forward Samuel Helenius, he was recalled from the AHL earlier this morning and is expected to play tonight against St. Louis.

What are the Kings looking for from the big man?

Jim Hiller on Samuel Helenius –

"Sammy is really clear on who he is, he's a big guy, you don't have to tell him to finish checks, he plays a pretty straight-up game, North/South." https://t.co/v9rEpwe90j

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) March 5, 2025

The fourth line was solid for much of the season but of late, the goals against have risen sharply over the last 10 games. Helenius is a defense-first center who also plays with a lot of snarl and physicality. He’s 6-6 and he knows it. That was an identity for that line early in the season and with Helenius now back in the fold, the hope is that he can help that line deliver that type of a game once again. He knows what he’s here for and plays to it.

– Lastly, one bright spot in Chicago?

For me, it was that the one goal the Kings did score was from Anze Kopitar with Alex Turcotte and Adrian Kempe assisting. Kempe had been separated from that line over the previous two games but was moved back there in Chicago. He started the play with a cross-ice through pass, hitting Turcotte in stride into the offensive zone. Turcotte’s pass required more touch, as he fed Kopitar in a good shooting position, also in stride. The captain buried his 14th goal of the season on the glove side, as we’ve seen him do in that area so many times.

For Kopitar, he took it upon himself after the St. Louis game. Said that he was at the “top of the list” of guys who need to contribute more. As noted yesterday, all three players have been in a bit of a scoring rut of late. Perhaps a little time apart can be just the medicine they need to get things back on track.

“I thought our line had a really good start to the game, got a goal obviously,” Kempe said. “I think the start of the game was really good from our line and we felt that excitement in being back together, playing and I think we had some really good looks. Looking to keep that going for sure.”

Expecting them to play together again tonight to start the game and we’ll see where things go from there.

Kings and Blues in the first game back in Los Angeles, beginning a stretch with five of six games coming at Crypto.com Arena. Final game before the trade deadline. Go time for this group.