Fresh off a calm, cool, collected effort that produced their second home win of the season, the Kings will look to capture consecutive contests at Crypto.Com Arena for the first time this year as they close their homestand against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.
After playing double-digit games with an effectively identical lineup, the Kings juggled their forward lines in consecutive games and might be forced to do so in a third consecutive match. First, they flipped Kevin Fiala and Arthur Kaliyev in the middle of the lineup (and the game) against Philadelphia on Saturday. Then, they inserted Jaret Anderson-Dolan in place of Alex Laferriere versus Florida on Thursday. Against St. Louis, there is a strong possibility they won’t have big-ticket trade pickup Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Coach Todd McLellan told reporters at practice Friday that the Kings would “see how he feels tomorrow” regarding Dubois’ availability against St. Louis. Importantly, McLellan shared that initial tests were relatively encouraging and the situation appeared “a lot better than it could have been.”
Dubois exploded through the neutral zone, drove the net hard and tried to score on a play where he ended up being felled by Dmitry Kulikov’s stick, causing him to bang his left leg hard on the goalpost. He was unable to support his weight on the leg as he departed the ice and bench.
Given Coach McLellan’s reticence thus far to break up the two effective lines that have bookended his forward group, one might expect Anderson-Dolan or a potential call-up – such as former lottery pick Alex Turcotte, if Dubois’ injury were to linger – as a direct substitute for Dubois. In addition to the aforementioned trusted trios, the second line, which now features Fiala with the duo of Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore, turned in a strong performance Thursday.
“I thought they were a true line, they played all over the rink, not just offensively-minded,” McLellan said. “They played a solid game both ways, and that made them dangerous.”
Next up, the whole crew will take on the Blues, who may have been moping to some John Lee Hooker tunes on the ride from San Jose, where they were devoured by the Sharks, 5-1, on Thursday. Pavel Buchnevich scored their lone goal. He and one-time King Brayden Schenn poured in matching hat tricks against the Avalanche last Saturday in an 8-2 romp. Their leading scorer, Robert Thomas, dished out four assists in that affair.
The Kings last faced the Blues in March, when they completed a three-game sweep of their “Expansion Six” rivals, whom they also beat in the playoffs en route to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title in 2012.
“We’ll take a peek at what St. Louis’s doing right now, we haven’t played them in a long time,” McLellan said. “I’d like to think we’ll be ready to put something together here at home, but we have to take that test.”
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Crypto.com Arena
How to watch: KCAL (Ch. 9)
