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4/7 Preview – What’s On The Line + Power-Play Practice, Jeannot Update, Hiller on Clarke, Alt Broadcast

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WHO: Los Angeles Kings (44-23-9) vs. Seattle Kraken (33-38-6)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular-Season Game
WHEN: Monday, April 7 @ 7:30 PM Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: FanDuel Sports Network & FanDuel Sports Network SoCal – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings continue on their three-game homestand later this evening as they host the Seattle Kraken.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Los Angeles and Seattle have played twice this season, with each team winning the game played on home ice.

Forward Anze Kopitar leads the Kings with three points, all assists, against the Kraken this season, while forward Adrian Kempe leads the way with two goals scored. Since Seattle entered the NHL, Kempe has 10 points (5-5-10) versus the Kraken, trailing only forward Kevin Fiala, who has nine assists and 11 points from nine games played in a Kings jersey.

KINGS VITALS: Following the full-team skate yesterday, the Kings held a highly-optional morning skate today in El Segundo.

Coming off yet another strong performance, goaltender Darcy Kuemper was not on the ice this morning and is tonight’s projected starter against the Kraken. Kuemper has posted a career record of 1-2-1 versus Seattle, with a .866 save percentage and a 3.28 goals-against average.

For reference, here’s how the Kings lined up last time out versus Edmonton –

Alex Turcotte has resumed skating with the full team, in a non-contact capacity, but is not expected to be back for tonight’s game. Forward Tanner Jeannot remains off the ice and his timeline is now “week-to-week” as of this morning.

Defensemen Jacob Moverare and Kyle Burroughs, along with forward Akil Thomas, are healthy and available to play if the Kings opted to make a lineup change.

KRAKEN VITALS: Seattle is on the third game of a five-game roadtrip, winning the first two games over Vancouver and San Jose.

Per Circling Seattle Sports, here’s how the Kraken lined up on Saturday versus San Jose –

Former Kings draft pick Mikey Eyssimont has been a regular in the lineup for the Kraken, after he was acquired by Seattle from Tampa Bay at the trade deadline.

Kraken winger Jordan Eberle has 11 career points (4-7-11) from 10 career games played against the Kings, while forward Matty Beiners has eight points (2-6-8) from 10 games played, with a +4 rating. Forward Kaapo Kakko had three assists in the 4-2 Seattle victory, his first game with the Kraken against the Kings.

Storyline Of The Day – So……What’s Next
The Kings are in the postseason.

We knew it was coming and it was formalized late Saturday evening, as Vegas defeated Calgary in overtime, cementing the Kings’ place as one of 16 teams in the playoff field.

“You never want to jinx anything, but I was talking about the playoffs in the media before we got an ‘x’ on our name, I felt pretty comfortable,” Head Coach Jim Hiller said. “You guys could have made all kinds of fun of me if we didn’t make it, that I mentioned playoffs, but I think there’s been some time where we’ve felt pretty comfortable that we’re going to be in the playoffs, so it doesn’t change too much.”

Since Saturday evening, Vegas won another game and re-instituted a gap in the Pacific Division standings. The Golden Knights sit atop the division, five points ahead of the Kings with one more game played. Then it’s another four points down to Edmonton in third.

The numbers, via PlayoffStatus.com, tell you the Kings have around an 80 percent chance of finishing second in the Pacific, with 10 percent in either direction of finishing first or third. The Kings have a 90 percent chance of rematching with the Oilers in Round 1, but in those scenarios, there’s a 90 percent chance the Kings would start at home. For a team that is 29-4-4 in Los Angeles this season, that’s a good thing.

But those are just the numbers. Those are for us. For the Kings, they’re just going out and trying to win games.

“We’re just trying to win every hockey game,” defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “To win the ultimate prize, we’ve got to take down the best teams, so it doesn’t matter who we’re playing against. We’re just trying to fine-tune our game over the next handful of games here going into playoffs.”

If the Kings win their games – 4 of the final 6, to be certain – they will play Game 1 at home, regardless of opponent. Things certainly seem to be lining up for that opponent to be Edmonton, but the Pacific Division is still within reach, which would set up either St. Louis or Minnesota in Game 1.

Either way, I suppose the message doesn’t change. It’s about winning hockey games for the Kings. That begins tonight, as the Kings host Seattle in the first of two games between the two clubs over the next nine days.

“We know it’s not as much fun to have to go start on the road, it’s nice to be able to stay here,” defenseman Mikey Anderson added. “We’ve had success at home, we like playing here, helps having the fans if you can start Games 1 and 2. I think that’s the mindset right now, is to keep winning games, keep building our game and when Game 1 comes around, we’re ready to go.”

Six games left on that checklist, beginning tonight against the Kraken.

3 To Watch For –
– The Kings spent a large portion of their practice yesterday working on the power play.

Recently, the Kings had a stretch with goals in five of nine games on the power play, with six total goals in that span. A little Kuzmenko-bump. Since then, though, they’ve scored a goal in just one off their last six games, the two-goal showing against San Jose.

There hasn’t been a ton of practice time to work on it, so when the Kings finally had some time on a Sunday, they took advantage.

“We haven’t had a lot of practice time and we usually do the power play in a pre-game skate and it’s quick, we want to get the guys off the ice,” Jim Hiller said. “We had the chance, not high intensity, to really, really get some good reps in. I thought it was a good day in that way.”

Tonight is Game 77. There isn’t going to be this large overhaul of systems at this point in the game, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be changes in one way or another.

Hiller mentioned that yesterday’s practiced involved “moving some people around a little bit, to see what that looks like.”

Not that he’d give up the strategies, so was probably a moot point in asking. But he did push back a bit on the notion that you can’t make those kinds of changes this late in the season. Not sure how different it will look tonight.

But they’re working on it. The Kings absolutely need power-play production in order to compete at that level. Come Game 1 of the postseason, the proof will be in the pudding if progress has in fact been made.

– Liked this quote from today, by Jim Hiller about defenseman Brandt Clarke.

“I think this is as good as he’s been defensively over the last month. It’s at the time of the year where hockey is the hardest. There was a stretch where hockey got really hard and it wore on him a little bit, but he’s bounced back and played his best. This is just a really, really positive sign for our team, when a guy can do that and get himself together and play good defense.”

Really encouraging to see that as it pertains to Clarke.

He’s certainly had his ups and downs this season but he’s an extremely talented player who is capable of making plays other defensemen can’t. In order to do that in the NHL, though, the defensive side has to be there and it’s encouraging to hear that it has been. In Utah on Thursday, I noticed some added snarl in Clarke’s game that we haven’t always seen. That’s a good sign, as we push towards the postseason.

“Physicality is obviously raising, it’s just that time of the year,” Clarke said of the uptick. “It’s exciting. We love being in those games and love playing games. Last year was a good test but I’m happy to be here now and I think it’s just part of hockey.”

The game in April is not the game in November. To see a younger player elevate his game to match the intensity and the physicality is a good sign, certainly.

– Lastly, Insiders, a note on another broadcast option tonight.

FanDuel Sports Network’s Carrlyn Bathe will not be on the primary telecast tonight. Instead, she will be in New York, hosting an alternate broadcast with Mike Kelly, the Director of Analytics & Insights for SportLogiq, which is actually an awesome website where I pull some of the metrics I use here on LAKI. The purpose of the secondary broadcast is to dive in a bit further on analytics and NHL Edge data, with the description in the release shown below –

Kings Stat Track will leverage a high corner camera and select cameras throughout Crypto.com Arena to offer fans a different perspective. Unlike the traditional FanDuel Sports Network broadcast, Kings Stat Track will integrate a real-time player and puck tracking system provided by NHL EDGE, the league’s data and analytics platform, consistently tagging the puck carrier and highlighting puck movement.

Complementing the tracking system, SportsMEDIA Technology will provide Hockey Information and Tracking System (HITS) for official scoring, and the capture, distribution and visualization of game data. The broadcast will provide real-time insights, including player names and positioning, line changes, skate and puck speeds, shot and save analytics, face-off probability, and more.

Should be fun. Something worth checking out for a little bit of a different perspective on the game.

Kings and Kraken! Six to go before the big dance, beginning tonight!

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