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You are here: Home / HockeyBlog / UPDATED LA Kings Projected Lineup vs. Washington Capitals; Welcome to Option City

UPDATED LA Kings Projected Lineup vs. Washington Capitals; Welcome to Option City

December 19, 2021 By John Hoven


In the absence of a morning skate today, predicting LA’s lineup for their Sunday game vs. the Washington Capitals comes with more questions than answers.

For starters, assuming everybody is healthy, Kings coach Todd McLellan is like most NHL bench bosses in that he typically rolls with the same lineup following a win. That isn’t the case here, as Carolina swept past LA 5-1 on Saturday.

An inconsistent team — which the Kings certainly meet the definition of this season — also usually isn’t afforded much stability in back-to-back games. Coaches will often tinker with their lineups in such situations, often looking to give older players a rest (rather than play them on consecutive days at the end of a road trip) and/or attempt to give younger players an opportunity to step into bigger roles.

Enter your 2021 LA Kings…

In net, Jonathan Quick has been better than anybody could have reasonably expected this season, especially of late. With Cal Petersen expected to miss about 10 days in protocol, Garret Sparks was recalled from AHL Ontario. Would McLellan have him start a regular season game (he looked good for LA during the NHL preseason, yet has gone 4-3-0 in Ontario this year with a .894 save percentage). We’ll assume McLellan sticks with Quick.

More LA Kings roster news…

Look for goalie @GSparks40 to join the team in Washington for tomorrow's game. pic.twitter.com/agiwTAbx3G

— The Mayor (@mayorNHL) December 18, 2021

With Cal out ~10 days, goalie carousel continues:

— Garret Sparks to join the Kings today, as we reported yesterday

— Jacob Ingham is being sent to AHL Ontario

— Lukas Parik, who was flown to Ontario for last night's game, expected to start for @RapidCityRush today in Boise

— The Mayor (@mayorNHL) December 19, 2021

Defensively, McLellan’s only option would be to use 23-year-old blueliner Jacob Moverare, in what would be his NHL debut. Although he was Ontario’s Outstanding Defenseman last season — as a rookie! — he still only has 45 games of pro experience in North America. Sliding him in against the Caps could be a tall ask, even for a promising young player. We’d estimate there’s a less than 30% chance that happens today.

At forward is where most of the questions come into play. Lias Andersson has been sitting on the sidelines waiting to get back into action. Additionally, after holding rather steady with his line combinations in recent weeks, it’s likely time to mix things up a bit. With that in mind, we’re taking the uncommon approach of providing a few alternate lineup projections below.

11am UPDATE — Danault has entered protocol, so back to the drawing board…

LA KINGS PROJECTED LINEUP vs. WASHINGTON CAPITALS on 12/19

Kempe – Kopitar – Brown
Iafallo – Moore – Arvidsson
Andersson – Kupari – Grundstrom
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev

Other options: N/A
Protocol: Danault
IR: Athanasiou

Bjornfot – Durzi
Maatta – Roy
Wolanin – Anderson

Other options: Moverare
Protocol: Doughty

Quick (starter)
Sparks
Protocol: Petersen

LA KINGS PROJECTED LINEUP – OPTION B

Andersson – Kopitar – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Kempe – Kaliyev
Moore – Kupari – Brown
Lemieux – Lizotte – Grundstrom

LA KINGS PROJECTED LINEUP – OPTION C

Iafallo – Kopitar – Brown
Kempe – Lizotte – Arvidsson
Andersson – Kupari – Grundstrom
Lemieux – Moore – Kaliyev

On the Capitals side of things:

#Caps forward TJ Oshie is unavailable due to the NHL's COVID-19 protocol.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 19, 2021

With Oshie joining Backstrom and Kuznetsov in protocol and both Wilson and Mantha still out with upper body ailments, the #Caps will take the ice against LA tonight with Alex Ovechkin as last man standing among group they envisioned as their top six forwards last summer.

— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) December 19, 2021

NEWS | The Capitals have recalled forward Joe Snively, a native of Herndon, Va., from the Hershey Bears.

Snively trained at MedStar Capitals Iceplex during his youth and was a participant in Washington's Little Caps program.#ALLCAPS | @FTX_Official https://t.co/nv6n48LxwE

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 19, 2021

KINGS MILESTONES WITHIN REACH

Anze Kopitar – needs 45 points to pass Dave Taylor for third on the Kings all-time scoring list

Dustin Brown — 8 goals away from passing Bernie Nicholls for fifth place in Kings franchise history

Drew Doughty — 14 games away from playing in his 1,000th NHL regular season game

Puck drop is scheduled for 4:00 pm PST today and the game will be on Bally Sports Network.

RELATED CONTENT:

Ontario Reign Projected Lineup vs. Roadrunners; Includes Goaltending Update and Forward Swap

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Filed Under: HockeyBlog, Kings, NHL, Spotlight Story Tagged With: Andersson, Capitals, hockey, Kings, lineup, Moverare, NHL, roster, Sparks, Washington

About John Hoven

John Hoven is a former member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and co-hosts Kings of the Podcast. He's also the founder and editor of MayorsManor.com, which has been named Best Sports Blog in Los Angeles and Hockey Blog of the Year. Click "ABOUT OUR TEAM" below for a full bio.

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