Training camp has come and gone, Insiders.
When the Kings hit the ice tomorrow morning, I’d consider it to be a regular-season practice. Two days later, the team will be back in Denver for the regular-season opener against the Colorado Avalanche. Then it’s on.
As camp comes to a close, I think we’ve seen how some of the biggest question marks surrounding the Kings have come together. I don’t think we have answers. But we have observations. Sharing five of mine below.
Goaltending Split
We came into camp with, in my opinion, a goaltending competition. Both Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg will play a lot of games this season. The split, though, I think remains up for grabs.
Both goaltenders turned in a strong outing in their second preseason games, with each earning a victory over the Anaheim Ducks. Forsberg was stout at Honda Center on Wednesday and Kuemper bounced back with a good performance at Crypto.com Arena yesterday afternoon. I thought it was particularly big for Kuemper, after he allowed five goals in his first game, though a lot of that should be pinned on a subpar defensive showing.
This is one of those questions that doesn’t have an answer, nor will it for a while in my opinion. The Kings only play six games in the first three weeks of the season. Not only is there not a back-to-back in there, but there’s not even a pair of games with only one day in between. It’ll be 2-3 days between games over the first few weeks, until the Kings hit the road for their first trip of the season.
I felt coming in that this was a true competition. I thought Forsberg had perhaps a slight leg up, off his strong showing down the stretch last year, but this was always going to trend towards a split, barring any injuries. I don’t think that either goaltender separated himself during camp in either direction, so the evaluation continues into the regular season.
Second-Line Center
The Kings did not acquire a top-six center this summer.
They certainly explored it but for a few different reasons, that situation did not materialize. The best center the Kings realistically could have added, without sacrificing a ton of assets, was Adrian Kempe. With Kevin Fiala’s injury, I don’t see that as a real option at the start of the season. So, behind Quinton Byfield, who will be given a chance to center the first line, the Kings had a few options, but no proven 2C.
In my opinion, Alex Turcotte offers the highest upside option at that position and he’s been given a chance to use that spot. I think that Erik Haula is a legitimate option as well – he’s a proven middle-six center in the NHL who offers a higher floor than Turcotte. But he’s also an important part of the third line and the penalty kill. Turcotte has shown an ability to play with skilled players. He was effective with Kempe and Anze Kopitar a couple years ago, even if he wasn’t productive to the tune of what you’d want from a first-line forward. He could hang, though.
I thought this quote yesterday from Peter Laviolette gave a lot of context to his thought process –
“I think he’s worked really hard in camp to show what he could do. He’s always been a highly-skilled player and basically, it’s training camp, it’s an opportunity for people to show what they can do. I think there’s other things that I like about the lineup too, where it allows me to layer something into a third line that can be used in a different way.”
This tells me that using a player like Turcotte as the second-line center also allows Laviolette to build a third line that can take on tougher matchups with two-way players like Trevor Moore, Erik Haula, Scott Laughton and Joel Armia. As he detailed was his preference back over the summer. It also gives a player like Turcotte an opportunity. He’s had opportunities before but maybe not quite like this, at his natural position.
It’s a chance for Turcotte to show what he can do. His mindset is, essentially, to let it rip. Preseason performances or narratives don’t count for much, so as of this writing, the Kings don’t have a proven player in that spot. See if Turcotte can meet the moment he seems to be getting.
Defensive Pairings
When we spoke with Associate Coach Phil Housley over the summer, he said that he and Peter Laviolette would experiment with defensive pairings during training camp. He said we’d see the pairs we saw last season and we’d see some other combinations as well.
He has been true to his word. Between games and practices, we’ve seen a number of different looks on the blueline.
As we come out of camp, I feel that pairings of Dumoulin/Doughty and Anderson/Clarke give the Kings the best chance at success. I felt going into camp and I felt that last year too, but we never got all the way there. Now we might.
The pairing of Dumoulin and Doughty had an excellent preseason in my opinion. What’s interesting is that we never saw them together in a practice but then they were utilized at Honda Center on Wednesday. Thought they had a great night. They followed that up with another strong performance on Saturday. I’ve felt that Dumoulin shows his best stuff when playing in an elevated role in the lineup. I think his game meshes well with Doughty. So far, so good there.
With Anderson and Clarke, they played together against Utah but not against Anaheim. I think their games mesh well together also and should elevate both players. It would give the Kings a more versatile Top-4 in terms of moving the puck. I could see the Kings sticking with Edmundson/Clarke and Anderson/Ceci, potentially, but Edmundson’s day-to-day status complicates things a bit. Let’s see how it goes this week.
I have appreciated seeing different looks during camp and at the very least, it gives the staff multiple options for when change inevitably comes at some point during the season.
Special Teams
It’s been a little bit mixed bag here, but I think this has been a pretty positive development.
Starting with the positives, I mean, c’mon.
