10/25 Preview - Potential Alignment + Bolts Match, Grundstrom's Metrics, Clarke on Firsts

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (3-4-0) – Tampa Bay Lightning (3-3-0)
WHAT: NHL REGULAR SEASON GAME
WHEN: Tuesday, October 25 @ 19:30 Pacific
WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: Bally Sports West – AUDIO – iHeart Radio – TWITTER: @DooleyLAK & @LAKings

TODAY’S MATCH: The Kings returned home after five consecutive away games and kicked off a three-game home game with the Tampa Bay Lightning in Los Angeles.

HEAD TO HEAD: The Kings lost both games against Tampa Bay last season and had ten consecutive losses to Lightning, but they took one point with a loss in overtime at Florida. Forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault had one goal each and one assist each against Lightning last season.

VITALS OF THE KINGS: The Kings hit the ice for full team practice yesterday morning, which led to an optional morning skating at El Segundo today.

Goalkeeper Jonathan Quick didn’t skate at the Toyota Sports Performance Center this morning, leading to the idea that he’ll be starting this evening against Tampa Bay. Throughout his NHL career, Quick was 6-5-3 against Lightning, with a .919 save percentage and a 2.29 goal difference.

As for the skaters, there isn’t a full team that will make official runs on the ice today, but here’s a guess we can see based on yesterday’s training:

Kempe – Kopitar – Fiala
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Kaliyev – Byfield – Vilardi
Lemieux – Lizotte – Grundstrom

Anderson-Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler-Clarke

Fast
Petersen

The Kings saw defender Alex Edler rejoin their roster in Washington and came out of an upper body injury that saw him miss the previous three games. Todd McLellan has indicated the possibility of a roster change tonight, but that decision won’t be made after tonight’s warm-ups. Defender Sean Walker and forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan went up against the Capitals and will have check-in options if this move is made. We’ll see how things shake out between now and tonight’s game.

LIGHTNING LIFE: It’s set to begin a three-game road trip in Tampa Bay, California, and games against the Ducks and Sharks will follow later in the week. Lightning won back-to-back games into tonight’s action with a .500 start to the season.

Tampa Bay is expected to start goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevskiy in tonight’s competition, as he was the first to cry from the ice after skating that morning. Vasilevskiy set a career-high 7-2-0 with .919 saves and 2.73 goals difference in 10 games against the Kings.

Here’s how the team lined up in today’s morning skating, according to Chris Krenn of TampaBayLightning.com –

Here are some different lines and D-matches #bolts morning skating:

Hagel-Dot-Kucherov
Namestnikov-Stamkos-Killorn
Colton-Paul-Burgundy
Koepke-Bellemare-Perry

Hedman-Cernak
Sergachev-Perbix
Cole-Foot
Fleury-Myers

– Chris Krenn (@Chris_Krenn) 25 October 2022

Former Kings nominee Erik Cernak will return to the Tampa Bay roster tonight in a defensive matchup with Viktor Hedman. Hedman scored three goals in two games against Los Angeles last season. Former Ducks forward Corey Perry leads all active skaters in the NHL with 24 career goals against the Kings.

Notes –

Eastern Champions Are Here
Todd McLellan knows who’s coming to town tonight to kick off a three-game field game for the Kings. That’s the Tampa Bay Lightning, three-time Eastern Conference champions, as they lost to Colorado in the Stanley Cup Final last season and is the only thing that separates Lightning from triple peat.

“I think if you’re playing against Tampa, it doesn’t matter if it’s home or away, it could be in a neutral site match in Europe, you better be ready,” he said. “It’s a pretty good contender for us to have tonight to see if we can consistently move in the right direction. It’s moving in the right direction, but inconsistently.”

In the case of Kings, inconsistency is probably the name of the game right now. Regardless of the opponent, things are moving in the right direction, but they are not doing it with any predictability or consistency as they did in the second half of last season.

One area that has been debated over the past few days has been the notion of aggression displayed by defensive players and the need to match coverage from the striker. This is a playground where the Kings struggle to find the balance between the two factions and the responsibility is shared by all parties. Finding that balance is important every night, but with Tampa Bay in town it’s especially important against a team that likes to play long and does it successfully.

“This team likes to play long and they’re good at it,” McLellan said. “They also have very active, jumping defenses and they’ve been good at doing it. When you talk about a pinch, you usually talk about what your defender did and how he did it, and when he was the player going south, it was as important or more important as the other players coming north. There are also cases where it succeeds or fails in pinching.”

When the teams met last season, injuries took a toll on both sides. The Kings played pretty well when the teams met in Tampa Bay, with no call in controversial overtime that determined the game-winning goal for Lightning, but Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov came in with injury. Tampa Bay missed a few regulars on the blueline in a 6-4 loss in January.

Tonight, the Kings will begin hosting a full roster and a tough matchup.

“The last few times we’ve played with them, they haven’t necessarily been healthy,” McLellan added. They’ve had some pretty good players outside of their roster and they’re going to give their best tonight, and that’s really good. They rely on their goalie as a balancing factor for them, and in our preliminary observation I wrote that they are playing their game and trying to impose it on their opponents, that’s what they do.”

carllllllllllllll, good to see you
Striker Carl Grundstrom proved to be a strong fit with Blake Lizotte and Brendan Lemieux on line four.

We’ve covered this line quite a bit over the past few days, but Grundstrom particularly seems to have embraced the identity and mentality of others and made a lot of attempts in the second half of this journey.

“Carl is just a horse, he weighs in and he can score in the net,” Lizotte said of Grundstrom. “If you give him a few chances at waxing, he will come in. I think Carl brings the bulldog attitude with Lemieux, where we can use our bodies and legs on the front to smash teams. I think chemistry is in a good spot right now.”

On a 60/60 basis, Grundstrom is third among Kings forwards in 5v5 field goal attempts, and third in high-hazard chances with the same knockouts. While this line as a whole does a good job of creating shot volume in the offensive zone, it also demonstrates an effective preflight ability to turn first opportunities into second and third looks. Grundstrom’s goal in Pittsburgh comes with a late power-play chance as the game spirals out of control, and the prize didn’t come in 5v5.

If last season is any indication, the offense will eventually come, but that’s also not what this streak counts for on a game-by-game basis. Grundstrom offers a combination of skill and physicality that has proven to be a good fit alongside its current line mates.

“Grunny can play a simple game, but he also has the offensive skill and skill to make other games,” added Lemieux. “I think our line has an identity and what the coaching team wants us to play is this simple style of play and doing this process over and over.”

As McLellan pointed out yesterday, the Kings are happy with that line at the moment. It’s a good sign to move forward if they keep doing what they’re doing, as Grundstrom has a big part in it.

C1ARKE
The final nationwide march was the first of several experiences for young defender Brandt Clarke. First NHL ride, first. His first NHL score with an assist in Pittsburgh and the chance to see his NHL superstars vying from game to game. He almost had his first goal in that talk, but he got a good look at the post in the third period of the match.

Clarke spoke about a few of these firsts this morning –

First NHL spot
Yes, it was a really good feeling, late in the game, down 6-0 and not the most memorable 6-1 story but still something I’ll love for a long time to come. I have the disc and it’s definitely something I’ll keep forever.

On his first NHL journey
[In the OHL] Barrie and I were so central that we seldom stayed in hotels and many young people had schools. It was fun being around the team for this long, we were all connected, so that was nice. The guys all included me in their dinner and what not and I had a great time on the trip.

Playing against NHL superstars on consecutive nights
Yeah, it’s kind of wild, my friends are watching the game all the time and they’re standing next to those guys and sending me pictures, it’s pretty funny. I feel like I’m warming up, I look around and [Crosby] He’s warming up at the McDonald’s sign, sort of, wow, when I look like they’re here. I guess the game starts when the disc drops, I really can’t get it out of my mind. I feel good in that sense.

Kings and Lightning at 19.30 on Crypto.com Arena! It’s good to be home, Insiders. See you there!