Preview 12/19 – Full Skate Today + Phil(s Line)adelphia, Fiala 600, 2014 Draft Reunion

On By Littum

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (18-9-4) @ Philadelphia Flyers (14-14-4)
WHAT: 2024-25 Regular Season Games
WHEN: Thursday 19 December at 16:30 Pacific Ocean
WHERE: Wells Fargo Center – Philadelphia, PA
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: ESPN+ / Hulu – AUDIO – ESPN LA App – TWITTER: @dooleylak & @lakings

TODAY’S MATCHUP: Three games left for the Kings before the holiday break as the road trip continues tonight in the city of Brotherly Love.

HEAD TO HEAD: The Kings and Flyers split the 2023-24 season series, with each team winning on the road, including a 5-0 Los Angeles victory here in Philadelphia.

Forward Quinton Byfield led the way with four points last season against the Flyers, including a three-assist game in this building last November. Forward Adrian Kempe scored a goal in both games, while defender Vladislav Gavrikov had an assist in both games.

KING’S VITALS: The visitors held a full morning skate today, after keeping the majority of the group off the ice yesterday.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper was first off the ice after the morning skate today, making him tonight’s projected starting goaltender for the Kings in what would be his fourth start from five games on this trip. Kuemper has a career mark of 3-4-1 against the Flyers, with a .898 save percentage and a 3.16 goals-against average.

There’s no reason to expect 11/7 not to continue today with the Kings winning convincingly in that lineup. An expected lineup, shown below –

Turcotte – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele–Byfield–Jeannot
Fiala – Danault – Laferriere
Helenius – Thomas

Anderson–Gavrikov
Edmundson–Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Burroughs

Kuemper
Rittich

Forward Trevor Moore remains out with an upper body injury and will not play today against the Flyers.

Based on today’s skate, I would expect the same configuration tonight for the Kings in Philadelphia, with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. The Kings have forward Andre Lee and defenseman Andreas Englund available if they pursue lineup changes, but not practicing yesterday was designed to keep higher-minute forwards fresh for the end of the trip. Wouldn’t be surprised to see 12/6 in Nashville or Washington – or both – but expect 11/7 tonight.

FLYER’S VITALS: Philadelphia has had an up and down season to date, with two and three game streaks, both wins and losses, making up their last 10 games with a 5-4-1 record.

Per Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer, here’s how the Flyers lined up last night in Detroit –

The Kings will host forward Matvei Michkov for the first time in the NHL, with the rookie forward playing in his first season in the league. Michkov leads all rookies this season in goals (11) and points (27), trailing only Montreal’s Lane Hutson in assists.

Story of the Day – Phil(s Line)adelphia
At the start of the season, Kevin Fiala, Phillip Danault and Alex Laferriere were all on different lines. While Fiala and Danault had played together at times in the past, it was typically with Trevor Moore as the third member, with Moore and Danault being the primary pairing and Fiala the player.

Right now, even though it wasn’t the line on the original plan, it’s a line that works really effectively.

“I think we’ve actually been playing really well together, especially the last few games here,” Fiala said. “We can’t get it in right now, consistently, that’s what we’re looking for, but we’re not going to give up, we’re going to keep going and hopefully get one tonight.”

Since Jim Hiller approached the three players on the same unit, the results have been quite promising. When exactly that time was, I’m not 100 percent sure. The first time it was recorded during the line rush was Nov. 29 at Anaheim, so it’s been eight games. To use ten games as a round number, that line has controlled more than 69 percent of the shot attempts with the three on the ice combined. Five goals for, only two against.

While the output hasn’t quite matched what they’ve put into it, these three players have controlled more than 70 percent of high-danger chances. It’s only a matter of time before the three players turn those looks into goals.

The Pittsburgh game was perhaps the best of the bunch. On a night where the Kings generally weren’t all that excited about their play, the Danault line was a driving factor, with 18 shot attempts for, compared to just three against and a 9-0 advantage in scoring chances. It was a really strong display that helped give the Kings an air of possession on an otherwise challenging night.

“Our most dangerous line by a wide margin,” Hiller said. “You wanted them to score, but they did the right things, gave us a chance. You’re always looking for that one line and the other night (in New York) it was the 55 line, I thought. It’s usually one line that’s going to try to run you, everybody can’t be on every night and they were definitely our most dangerous.”

It wasn’t a perfect night without getting one into the net.

At 2-1, that streak had the chance to make it 3-1 on a few occasions, perhaps none more so than a sequence where both Danault and Fiala missed out on an attempt that ended up going through the crease and out on the other hand. You can point to the moments and chances not taken and everyone will agree. However, the numbers typically balance out in the long run.

If these guys keep playing together, with Fiala’s playmaking ability, Danault’s prowess around the crease, and Laferriere’s new goal-scoring ability, you’d expect the ledger to turn, assuming they continue to play the way they’ve been.

“I think we’re definitely building a lot of chemistry there,” Laferriere said. “Any time you can get chances, it’s good. The puck doesn’t go in, but we’re in the o-zone and we get those chances, so it’s got to go in at some point.”

3 to look for –
– The Kings were originally supposed to practice yesterday in Philadelphia.

After the way the game went in Pittsburgh, Jim Hiller called an audible, opting to have only a handful of players skate, with five total skaters on the ice with goaltender David Rittich.

Against the Penguins, the Kings went down to three lines most of the night, with the fourth line not seeing as much time as they did in previous games. Expect that to change tonight, according to Hiller, who said it had more to do with game flow, matching up against Crosby and Malkin, and nothing to do with how Samuel Helenius and Akil Thomas played specifically. Expect more balance tonight.

“We get to a 3-on-4 here really quickly with a lot of travel, and I probably played some forwards (in Pittsburgh) more than I wanted to,” Hiller said. “Killer and Sammy didn’t play much, more on my decision, not the way they played, just from the rotation with Crosby and Malkin, they’ll get more ice time (tonight).”

As such, the Kings kept a full team skating today after most players didn’t touch the ice yesterday. Starting a 3-in-4 traveling here tonight, energy is important.

Hiller added that he is talking to those affected to gauge their energy levels and get a sense of how everyone is doing. As such, he noted that they could go to the 12/6 approach at the end of the trip, but for tonight it sounds like they will be running it back 11/7.

Proof will be in the pudding tonight against the Flyers.

– Four members of the current LA Kings were drafted into this building – Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe, Andreas Englund and Warren Foegele. All part of the 2014 NHL Draft class and all attended the event here in Philadelphia.

Pretty rare you see four guys, drafted by four different teams in the same draft, now all playing as teammates. However, this is what we have.

Kempe was the only one of those four players to be drafted by the Kings, the last pick of the first round in 2014 after the Kings won the Stanley Cup. For Fiala, he was the highest pick in the group, by the Nashville Predators, 11th overall. A while ago, more than 10 years now, but still a special day for Fiala, and the others too.

“It’s actually pretty cool, I was talking to my parents yesterday, they were there too and they said ‘oh, remember the draft there’,” Fiala said. “It’s been 10 years, time flies, but still a special place for me, I mean it all started here. I look forward to playing here.”

– On the Fiala front, Tuesday marked his 600th career NHL game, making him the 11th member of his draft class to reach that milestone.

“It’s a lot of fun to get to 600 games,” he said. “If you would have asked me as a little boy, I would have signed up straight away, I would never have believed that. I am proud of myself, certainly very happy.”

Fiala ranks eighth in his draft class in goals, assists and points, with 446 of the latter to his name. He is 14 goals short of 200 and with a strong finish to the season could approach the 500-point mark by the end of the 2024-2025 campaign.

Kings at Flyers, tonight at the Wells Fargo Center. National broadcast on ESPN+, so streaming just for that one should be blackout-free on that front in all markets.