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#LAKings Tuesday: LA Kings Projected Lineup vs. Anaheim Ducks – First Home Game With Fans (May

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Entering the final stretch of what’s been a bizarre 2021 regular season, the Kings and Ducks still have plenty of business to handle on the ice. Having only met three times thus far, LA is 1-1-1 vs. their cross-town rival. While the totals in those games show the Kings scoring a combined 11 goals and giving up 10, the individual matchups show a different tale. Back in February, for the first Freeway Faceoff this season, LA lost 3-1, then they came back and scored five goals each in a two-game set in March, a 6-5 loss and 5-1 victory.
As noted over the past few days — following some additional practice time that was made possible following two games being postponed in Colorado — it appears coach Todd McLellan will put Gabe Vilardi on a line with Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore.
Kempe on tomorrow's game at Staples Center being the first one with fans this season — We've been missing our fans and we're all excited to have them back. Especially after playing in a few buildings with fans. Really looking forward to it.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) April 19, 2021
Kempe on how often the team talks about the standings when they're all together in the locker room — We talk about it after every game and we think we still have a chance at the playoffs. Just need to put together a good stretch here.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) April 19, 2021
Kempe also spoke about what a smart player Gabe is and how good his hands are when asked about the likely pairing with Moore and Vilardi.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) April 19, 2021
Defensively, McLellan will have some choices to make. While Kale Clague has yet to officially be reassigned to AHL Ontario (or the taxi squad), that move is expected soon. Even so, with Matt Roy and Toby Bjornfot appearing ready to go, that leaves eight healthy options.
McLellan on Matt Roy — Our record without him indicates how important he is to our lineup. We'll see how tomorrow's practice goes, but we are not ruling him out for Tuesday. https://t.co/BjRCT6lGzQ
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) April 18, 2021
At the same time, McLellan has certainly liked to play Kurtis MacDermid against the Ducks. Thus, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him go with seven defensemen vs. Anaheim. For starters, it would allow him to have an insurance policy against the aforementioned blueliners returning to the lineup for the first time in several weeks. Additionally, with the team’s last game coming nearly a week ago, his forward group should be able to handle any additional minutes thrown at them.
11:02AM UPDATE: Asked McLellan about the idea of playing 7D tonight and he didn’t dismiss the idea (quotes added below).
Per the norm coming off a few days of practice, McLellan opted for an optional morning skate this morning.
LA Kings projected lineup vs. Anaheim Ducks

Iafallo – Kopitar – Brown
Kempe – Vilardi – Moore
Athanasiou – JAD – Wagner
Lemieux – Lizotte
Anderson – Doughty
Maata – Roy
Bjornfot – Walker
MacDermid *
* If McLellan opts to go with a traditional 12-6 configuration, look for Grundstrom to draw in at forward and we’d assume a third-pairing of MacDermid-Walker (with Maatta being the odd man out)
Petersen (starter)
Quick
Other players available:
Carl Grundstrom
Matt Luff
Christian Wolanin
Kale Clague
The taxi squad is currently comprised of Troy Grosenick, Drake Rymsha, Lias Andersson, and Tyler Madden
One final note… A win by the Ducks tonight would clinch a playoff spot for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Should coach Todd McLellan provide any key updates during his media availability, this article will be updated.
During his morning media availability, McLellan shared the following thoughts:
On if Bjornfot and/or Roy will be available vs. Anaheim
They should both be ready to play tonight.
On if beginning a string of five straight games at home tonight is an opportunity to build some consistency and find a groove
Yes, but you’re stretching it out too far for me. I think we have to get our game back in order. It’s been a while since we played. Only [six] days, but it seems like forever. We’ve had a chance to practice. Heading out to Colorado and not being able to play gave us a chance to reset some things, but we have to find our game. Starts are important, to get back to the intensity and the pace that the game needs to be played at. So, you’re talking five games out, I’m talking maybe five minutes in. There’s a huge difference there, but one leads to the other. We play five at home, three will be against our natural rival, which will be important to us. There’s a lot of conversation going on about that, the rivalry and whatnot. Basically, what it boils down to is us finding our individual games and finding our team game, so that we can get back to being a productive team.
On what he can expect from Bjornfot in his first game played since being injured March 31 vs. Vegas
Just get comfortable again playing, it’s been a while. He’s recovering from a head injury, which you have to ‘get back in the saddle,’ I guess, and ride the horse again, for lack of a better analogy. The corner work, the puck retrievals, the aggressiveness that he plays with. Are his legs and lungs strong enough right now to play a good chunk of the game? We’ll be looking for that. And just show some confidence. Now, as a young player, he should be able to recover quite quickly. He has a chance here, down the stretch, to establish himself and set him up moving forward. We have 14 games left, that’s a nice chunk of games for him to play and to re-establish his game, and make sure that he’s confident.
On the likelihood that he’ll go with seven defensemen tonight
There’s a chance that can happen. We also have a group of forwards that haven’t played in a number of days too, so we’re still discussing it.
On Brendan Lemieux working to find his identity on the team
It’s more about game-mode. Practice allows him to figure out how we want to play and create predictability for himself and his linemates, structure-wise. That’s really important for players to get and to understand, so they can be a little more free to play and understand where the game might be going at certain times. He’s been able to do that this week. Finding his game within our structure is really important, but he’s only played three or four games, so it’s gonna take a little time. This pause, I’m sure it helped him practice-wise, but it won’t do anything for him game-wise until he puts more of those under his belt.
On what he wants to see from his team in the opening period after being off for a few days
The opportunity for loose puck battles. It starts with face-offs, let’s see if we can gain some possession. That’s the first competitive situation we’re gonna face. There’s no doubt that we’ll play in our end at some point; can we come out of our end clean, are we making good first passes, and then can we connect the next play? Are we aggressive on the forecheck, but smart? All three zones are gonna be really important for us. Let’s roll the lines out, let’s get everybody a couple shifts under their belt and then let’s see where we’re at. Also, the communication. I think that not enough is asked about that, the vocal part of the game. For our team, it has to get better. I felt it was was better even last year, earlier in the year, with more veteran players around who felt more confident about using their voices – commanding different calls or cues. Right now, we have a lot of younger players and they have to learn to use their voice; to talk, to communicate. We have a quiet team on the ice, we have to become more vocal. We’ll be looking for that and we talked about it this week.




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