Preview from October 24th – Finally a home game + today’s vital signs, travel evaluations, PP work

TONIGHT'S MATCHUP: I mean, finally, right? After seven road games to start the 2024-25 season, the Los Angeles Kings are finally back on home ice, hosting the San Jose Sharks in their home opener.

HEAD TO HEAD: The Kings scored seven of a possible eight points against San Jose last season and posted a record of 3-0-1 in four games played against the Sharks.

Forward Kevin Fiala led the team with five points (1-4-5) from the four meetings, while forward Adrian Kempe scored three goals and defender Jordan Spence also contributed four assists. Although it was against Edmonton, forward Warren Foegele had four points (2-2-4) in three games against San Jose last season.

KINGS VITALS: While returning home has a different feel in between, tonight is technically the conclusion of a seven-game, season-opening road trip for the Kings.

The Kings hosted a full-squad morning skate today, with goaltender David Rittich taking first place today in El Segundo. Rittich is about to make his fifth consecutive start. Tonight would be Rittich's 14th career appearance against San Jose, his best against an opponent. For his lifetime, Rittich has a 5-2-3 record against the Sharks, with a .900 save percentage and a 2.64 goals-against average.

Since yesterday was a day off, the Kings hosted a morning skate with the entire team today in advance of today's home opener. This morning's rushes are as follows:

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala-Danault-Moore
Foegele – Turcotte – Laferrière
Lee-Lewis-Jeannot
Thomas

Anderson-Spence
Gavrikov-Burroughs
Edmundson-Clarke
Englund-Jones

Rittich
Copley/Kuemper

The Kings will apparently make a change on the blueline: Defenseman Kyle Burroughs will be out this morning and will replace defenseman Andreas Englund. Burroughs has played in the first four games this season and hasn't played in the last three. With the change, the Kings adjusted their pairings to have three left-handers and three right-handers. Jim Hiller cited home and away games as a reason to use Anderson and Gavrikov in away games. At home, with more flexibility and control, it looks like these two will be split at the start of today's game as Anderson played with Spence and Gavrikov alongside Burroughs.

EDIT – Darcy Kuemper was activated from injured reserve today and will back up Rittich tonight.

SAN JOSE VITALS: The Sharks have lost seven straight games to start the season and enter tonight's game with a record of 0-5-2.

Per Sheng Peng of SJ Hockey Here's the Sharks' lineup for their final game against Anaheim on Tuesday –

#SJSharks Lines tonight, late change, Dellandrea moves up, Kunin moves down… once again Will Smith is there, Blackwood starts:

Eklund-Granlund-Toffoli
Gushchin-Wienberg-Zetterlund
Goodrow W. Smith Dellandrea
Kostin Storm Kunin

Walman Ceci
Ferraro Rutta
Thrun Thompson

Blackwood

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 23, 2024

Former Kings forward Tyler Toffoli will face his former team for the first time as a member of the Sharks. With four goals and seven points, Toffoli is the all-time leader for San Jose in both categories early in the season. In 10 games against the club that drafted him, Toffoli has six points (4-2-6) and a -6 rating.

Plot of the Day – Home Sweet Home
It's about time, right?

“It’s the end of October and we don’t even have Crypto under control yet, so it’s a little different,” said striker Anze Kopitar. Of course everyone is excited about tonight.”

7 consecutive away games to start the season. While the trip was more divided into a five-game trip and a two-game trip, the Kings actually played two preseason games in Quebec City, so it was really a true seven-game trip from a travel perspective. As Jim Hiller pointed out, in some ways it was even longer ago. The Kings have not played a game in their building since Game 4 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Zero preseason games at home and the first seven games of the regular season away. Simply put: it's time.

“It’s going to be great, it’s been a while,” Hiller said. “We're talking about seven games, but no, it's already 13 and we haven't had a single one yet. Our fans are great, the energy, I know our guys are going to be excited. It’s time.”

It's a welcome change for a group tired of hotels, buses and being away from home.

All in all, 3-2-2 is a pretty good trip. In their 58 years of existence, this was only the 23rd road trip of seven or more games in their history. Of the previous 22 trips, only three had a total score of more than eight points and one of those was an eight-game trip. Without Drew Doughty, with Darcy Kuemper injured, and on a team that is introducing new concepts across the board, the overall picture was fine.

I would put it like this. If you started the season with a positive attitude towards the Kings, this journey shouldn't stop you from maintaining that attitude. If your outlook was negative, it's probably still negative. I think the Kings did a lot of good things and some areas needed improvement. At the end of the day, it's a results-driven industry and I really don't think there's any point in getting upset about the eight points. It's still a work in progress, but there are still a lot of positives to take from it.

“It's been kind of a rollercoaster, obviously you want to stay as consistent as possible, but then again you get a record of .500, I guess, on the road, I think pretty much any team would take that,” Kopitar said. “So there is certainly room for improvement and we need to get better in certain areas. There are also some positive aspects (and) both situations will be addressed and improved in the future.”

Now we're back home and the Kings will play four of their next five games in this building. It's a little reprieve, and this is a team

For the first time, Kings players will see the new scoreboard at Crypto.com Arena. You will see the newly remodeled City View Terrace. They will be seeing these things for the first time, as will I be, and as I assume everyone who attends the game will be seeing too. Typically you'll want to host a preseason game or two, or even do a black-and-white matchup in your building to get a feel for it. For Kopitar it is not necessary. He was here. For some guys, though, there will be a lot of firsts: driving in, parking, changing room at home, new routine. Small things, but that's life this season.

Regardless, this is a team that desperately wants to be back here in Los Angeles.

“Very excited,” added striker Kevin Fiala. “We've all been waiting for this for a while, I think a while, and we're all really excited to get it going at home with our fans. “I'm just really excited to play the first one.”

In any case, it's good to get one in.

3 to pay attention to
– In the first four games this season for the Kings, the team has buried four power play goals, actually five if you include Trevor Moore's goal in Boston, which came as the penalty expired.

However, the last three remained goalless.

The Kings felt they had created enough in Montreal and Anaheim but failed to score a single goal. However, playing in Vegas felt like a step backwards.

“I think the last game was the only game that didn't go as well as in Anaheim, we could have scored so many goals but it (just) didn't go in,” Fiala said. “I think you just simplify it again, find the right spots, don't force anything, shoot some pucks, get the net presence and maybe get a dirty one. I’m sure that will change.”

The Kings worked on the power play during Monday's practice here and went through it again this morning during a full-squad skate.

Jim Hiller's message was similar to Fiala's, urging not to overthink the situation. As soon as you start thinking instead of doing, there is a tendency for something to go wrong.

“We don’t want to think about it too much,” Hiller said. “I think we had a couple of really good performances, a couple of posts, Laf had Kempe at the back post (in Vegas), that's usually money. We've had enough good prospects, we don't want to think about it too much, we'll just keep doing what we're doing and assume something will come in.”

– The Kings felt like netfront battles were a big area where Vegas controlled their play on Tuesday night.

“Vegas did a good job getting to our net front,” Hiller said this morning. “We were on their net front but maybe not quite as dangerous as them, they have better body positioning so we need to get better at that. “That's a specific area of ​​this game that we're going to address.”

When you look at the area where Vegas scored and won battles, the arena just outside the goal crease was a major factor. It's not something the Kings are looking to fix tonight specifically for San Jose, but they know in general it needs to be improved.

– Finally, a message from LA Kings PR regarding the late Gann Matsuda –

The entire LA Kings organization was saddened to learn of the recent passing of longtime writer Gann Matsuda. Gann was a passionate member of the media corps covering the Kings for more than a decade. Not only was he respected in his craft, but he was affable and well-liked by his colleagues and those he worked with. He has been unable to attend games in recent years and his presence has been sorely missed. It is with the utmost respect that we honor him at our home opener tomorrow. In his memory, there will be a seat in the press box to commemorate his dedication to bringing the Kings into the spotlight. In honor of Gann, the LA Kings, in consultation with the Matsuda family, are making a donation to the Manzanar Committee, an organization to which Gann has generously donated his time and energy. Gann will always be a Frozen King in the Kingdom of LA.

Gann was a good man and it was very sad to hear of his death. I haven't seen him in a few years, but definitely saw him around the rink quite a bit when I first started with the Ontario Reign in 2018. There will be a seat for tonight's home opener in Gann's memory, a fitting tribute to a man who truly enjoyed being up in the press box.