Kings Hold Off-Ice Workout + Last Night's Possession Metrics & Line Combos, Playoff Picture
The Kings touched down in the greater New York area in the wee hours of the morning. Considering a longer-than-usual flight between games and a later-than-usual arrival as a result, the team opted not to hold an on-ice practice here in New Jersey, in advance of tomorrow’s matchup against the Devils. Not surprising considering the *checks watch*………4 AM arrival time.
A weird couple of games for the LA Kings heading into tomorrow’s tilt in New Jersey.
The Kings defeated Arizona on Saturday to pick up two points and extend their winning streak to four games. The narrative after that game was the team’s inability to hold onto a lead, as they saw a 5-1 margin become an eventual 6-5 victory that required the shootout. Still, no harm no foul at the moment, but it was far from positive vibes coming out of that one.
Last night, the Kings fell by a 2-1 margin in Minnesota. The eye test confirmed pretty clearly what Anze Kopitar and Todd McLellan said after the game – the Kings played pretty well, even if it was one of those nights. Though it missed out on an opportunity to pick up points, the team was able to walk away with an acceptance of the effort they gave and the performance they put in.
Sometimes, you can see the sickness creeping into a team’s game, even when the results don’t quite match it. Sometimes you can know that you had a good performance, even if there was nothing to show for it.
When you look at last night’s game through a puck possession lens, it tells the story of a game the Kings controlled at 5-on-5, suppressing opportunities about as well as they have all season. On a per/60 basis, to equalize time spent at 5-on-5, the Kings posted their best metrics of the season in shot attempts against and high-danger chances against. If you like expected goals, the Kings column read more than three times the Wild’s. And, yet, the Kings lost 2-1 in regulation. Fair to call it one of those nights.
McLellan didn’t believe his team had a ton of passengers last night, meaning he was comfortable enough using all of his forwards, even if they weren’t necessarily used on the lines they started the game with. As he detailed after the game, the Kings are quite deep up front right now, but that depth is not built in the sense of a traditional alignment. If you look at the four lines, you could make the case for any of them being a scoring line. The fourth line has Gabe Vilardi and Arthur Kaliyev, with the former the team’s leading goalscorer for much of the season and the latter the team’s leading power-play goalscorer until his injury.
During his post-game availability, McLellan said that he used the third period as an opportunity to give players who may have been playing lower in the lineup a longer look in a larger role. What that meant was a ton of moving parts up front with line combinations seemingly changing on each run-through. On a night when the Kings created a ton but finished very little, it wasn’t a bad time to give it a go.
Look no further than Vilardi as the perfect example.
Vilardi began the game on a line with Kaliyev and center Rasmus Kupari. While he played over five minutes with each, Vilardi also logged more than four and a half minutes with the duo of Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar, as well as two-plus minutes with the pair of Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson. Vilardi was worked throughout the lineup, especially in the third period when he played more than seven minutes, as he skated mostly on the left side with three different pairs of linemates. Each of the three lines combined for multiple scoring chances and conceded next to nothing. There’s no specific reason to target Vilardi here other than the fact that he was moved around more frequently than any other player. He is, though, the perfect embodiment of McLellan’s quote. Though his name was on the fourth line of the lineup chart, Vilardi is not a fourth-line player, with a fourth-line skillset. He has 17 goals this season and is best utilized higher in the lineup. However, with the depth the Kings currently have up front, not everyone with a Top-9 skillset can play in the Top-9. It’ll be game-by-game moving forward, but as we’ve said several times before, difficult decisions will need to be made, on more fronts than one.
Speaking of difficult decisions, the Pacific Division features the most competitive divisional playoff race in the NHL. Both divisions in the Eastern Conference have a ten-point gap between the third team in a divisional spot and the wild card teams. The West is much tighter and the Pacific Division features a four-point spread between division-leading Vegas and first wild card Edmonton. All four teams, in addition to fifth-placed Calgary, have played either 57 or 58 games, with the Kings finally back on level terms. The Kings have gotten help what feels like every other night, with opponent records of 5-2-3, 4-5-1, 4-1-5 and 4-4-2 embodying that. Varying degrees of opposition coming up for those teams, but the Boston Bruins are making their rounds against the Pacific over the next week or so. Take care of your own business and it doesn’t matter, but hey, it can’t hurt to watch.
At the e̶n̶d̶ start of the day……
Will see what the evening brings, Insiders! Game preview to follow tomorrow morning for sure, as the Kings will likely hold a full morning skate in New Jersey.
