The Kings were back on the ice this morning for the first of two practices in advance of Saturday’s game versus Boston.
Full group skate today, but not the same look. Here’s how the Kings aligned during today’s practice –
Panarin – Laferriere – Kempe
Moore – Byfield – Haula
Armia – Laughton – Wright
Lee – Helenius – Perry
Zuccarello
Gustafsson – Clarke
Edmundson – Doughty
Anderson – Dumoulin
Ceci
Kuemper / Forsberg
Interesting, eh?
Here’s Peter Laviolette’s take.
“First of all, it was just practice today. There’s another practice tomorrow, that doesn’t mean that the line will be the same. We’re looking at it because we need to generate more offense. I think that the line you’re talking about you’re talking about is Quinton’s line, correct? I thought that they were in the offensive zone really the entire night and I thought that they did an excellent job offensively inside the game, but we still find ourselves not producing the way we want to. We put up 41 shots, I think we generated a lot of chances, enough chances, but I’d still like to see more in different areas from our group. We went over that today. It’s not based on what they did or they didn’t do, I thought that they did a lot, I thought they played hard and they were in the offensive zone. It’s more for me that we need to continue to look at it because we’re not scoring enough.”
The Kings have scored one goal in three consecutive games. That they are considering a change, driven by the necessity of scoring more goals, should not be surprising. The variable I think is in play here is the status of Mats Zuccarello and where he ultimately slots into the mix here. Zuccarello, in the alignment above, could play on Byfield’s line – my take, not anything we gathered from today. Zuccarello was on the ice, he did practice and he was in a full-contact jersey, but I wouldn’t call him a full participant. He was in most drills, including a couple of smaller area games that bring physicality into the mix a bit, but he wasn’t in every drill. During full-line work, Zuccarello wasn’t on a line, but was taking defensive shifts with Ceci to give the group even numbers. That tells me that while he is getting close, maybe he’s not there quite yet. From the updates we’ve gotten on Zuccarello, I don’t think anything is really out of line, going on around 10 days from his last game.
So, the alignment above is what we saw for today. It might not be what we see tomorrow, but it is certainly something that merits consideration.
The biggest change is that either Laferriere or Kempe will play center. As such, Quinton Byfield is taken off the top line with Kempe and Panarin, which was his first real opportunity to play in that role.
With Kempe and Laferriere, I don’t think it’s as defined as maybe you’d ordinarily see it. In talking with Laferriere today, I think there will be some fluidity between him and Kempe. They can split faceoffs in certain situations, being of opposite hands. Defensively, the Kings typically use the first backchecker as the player who plays down low anyways and both Kempe and Laferriere are more than comfortable in that position. Offensively, I think you’ll see times when both attack through the middle and both attack on the right wing. I have said in the past that I like Laferriere in that position, with those two players. I said last season that I think that he is the best stylistic fit for those two wingers on the roster, with the skillset he has and how Panarin and Kempe operate. In speaking with Laferriere today, he said that he feels his own game is best when he’s forechecking relentlessly, which gets pucks back to his linemates. Then, his focus is on getting open to be found by Panarin and Kempe.
On the other side of things, the Kings need a step forward from Quinton Byfield this season, regardless of what line he’s on. I do not believe we have seen the last of Byfield skating with Kempe, Panarin or both. Might switch back tomorrow, especially as players like Zuccarello and – eventually – Kevin Fiala return. But the Kings aren’t scoring goals and I don’t think it’s hard to argue that a change up is needed. Kempe and Panarin have the productive track record together from last season. Probably a little bit quicker of a leash than you’d have expected, but the Kings have no wins in five games and rank last in the NHL in 5-on-5 goals. Gotta produce, or changes happen.
Now, the lines are part of it. But it’s more than that.
In terms of today’s skate, there was an emphasis on scoring goals. I’ve always found this to be an awkward question to ask, but how do you practice scoring more goals? If you don’t feel you are forechecking well or the neutral zone is struggling or maybe the penalty kill isn’t working, those feel like easily addressable things. Scoring more goals though is different. Do you shoot more pucks? Tip more pucks? Screen more goaltenders? Direct players to different areas of the ice? change when they get to those areas of the ice? Every plays is fairly unique. So, again, I asked Laviolette for his take on it.
He said after the Edmonton game that he believed the Kings had enough shots on goal and “chances” to score more than one goal. I’d agree with that, even if I feel that the percentage of those chances which were high danger was lower than it needed to be. Even still, not one goal lower.
So, when you have players who have scored in this league in the past, how do you get them to turn more chances into goals?
“I think that you can become confident as you find production, so we do work on things in practice all the time, whether it be offensive, small-area games, guys trying to move the puck quicker, drills that are set up to get to the interior, tip drills for shots that are coming in from the point, traffic drills, screen drills, I think there’s a lot of things that you can try to work on. Ultimately, I have a lot of belief that the players in the room they have scored 20 goals, 25 goals, 30 goals, 35 goals, 40 goals in their past, I believe that they’re capable of doing that and it hasn’t fallen for us. I think once it does, I think you start to gain a little bit of confidence from that as well.”
I’ll have more here tomorrow, as we see if what happened today holds true in 24 hours.
Had a good conversation with Laferriere about where he fits onto that line and that video will be up on the Kings YouTube page later on today if you’d like to hear what he had to say. I think that I’d like to see the lines stay together – or not – before making more about it than this. If this is how things look tomorrow and how the look like they might be for Saturday’s game, there’s more to dive into. Also in that video is a team-driven chat with defenseman Drew Doughty, who put the onus on the team’s top players to give more and get the team into the win column. I’ll embed that below once posted.
