Why did the Kings take extra bodies with them on the road trip? For moments just like this.
Sunday morning the Kings announced Adrian Kempe had entered protocol; thus he wouldn’t be available for Monday’s game vs. San Jose.
Protocol flip flops…
— Martin Frk had cleared protocol, he's been reassigned to AHL Ontario (Reign play tomorrow).
— Meanwhile, Adrian Kempe has entered protocol. Won't be available tomorrow in San Jose.
— The Mayor | John Hoven (@mayorNHL) January 16, 2022
By any evaluation of the situation, this is a potentially major blow for coach Todd McLellan — no matter how short term the situation may end up being. With 17 goals in 38 games, Kempe has provided an offensive punch for a team starved for goals many nights. Not only does he lead the team in goals, he’s also second in points.
So what will McLellan do with this new opening on LA’s top line?
Rather than looking at 432 different scenarios, let’s boil it down to three likely options.
Scenario 1
Making changes to a winning lineup can be tough to stomach. The Kings are 7-3 in their past 10 games. Hence, the easiest move would be to just plug a player into the lineup from the taxi squad. They brought Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Sammy Fagemo on this trip. With the later being a winger — and somebody who has predominantly played right wing in Ontario this season – would appear to be an easy solution… until you consider the fact Fagemo has played just one NHL game, and this would be asking him to play top line minutes alongside Anze Kopitar and Alex Iafallo. That’s a pretty tall ask.
Todd McLellan after practice today in Seattle, re: if he'd prefer to replace Kempe one-for-one in the Kings lineup:
We're going to start with a plan and it's going to be flexible. It's an important line for us. We're asking a lot of whoever goes there. We'll adjust if needed.
— The Mayor | John Hoven (@mayorNHL) January 16, 2022
Scenario 2
Building on McLellan’s comments following practice yesterday, another option at RW1 would be Andreas Athanasiou. He’s been out since suffering an injury on December 14 in Tampa Bay. However, he’s been skating for at least a week and should be close to returning. Activating him from IR wouldn’t be an issue either, as the Kings currently have extra roster spots to play with. They started today with only 11 forwards on the roster. By game time, they’ll add somebody to replace Kempe and activate another player to serve as a healthy scratch vs. San Jose. On many levels, Athanasiou would make a ton of sense to replace Kempe, not the least of which includes the fact his NHL experience should make it a more comfortable plug in compared to asking Fagemo to fill the slot.
Scenario 3
If McLellan is looking to bump somebody up in the lineup based on merit, Arthur Kaliyev would likely be the guy.
Just some Sunday speculation, but here you go…
Iafallo – Kopitar – Kaliyev
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Athanasiou – Turcotte – Brown
Lemieux – Lizotte – KupariOption 2 would be same top-6, with…
Turcotte – Kupari – Brown
Lemieux – Lizotte – Fagemo— The Mayor | John Hoven (@mayorNHL) January 16, 2022
There’s a couple ways to accomplish a move like that, depending how many other lines McLellan is willing to make adjustments to.
In addition to the lineup discussion, another storyline entering this game is LA’s ongoing fight for a playoff spot. Given that most teams in the Pacific Division have played a disproportionate number of games, it’s best to look at things sorted by points percentage. That paints the most accurate picture.
Pacific Division standings
1.16.2022 pic.twitter.com/LSqfYPaPbl— The Mayor | John Hoven (@mayorNHL) January 16, 2022
McLellan on 2nd in PD – We scoreboard watch every night; we want to keep tabs on teams. But when you start cheering for other teams to do work for you, that's a different playoff point. We're not there yet. Need to focus on continuing to grow our game and try to stay in the race.
— The Mayor | John Hoven (@mayorNHL) January 16, 2022
Without a morning skate today it’s a bit difficult to project the goaltending rotation McLellan will use this week. In the absence of any additional information, we could see him going back to Cal Petersen today and then saving Jonathan Quick to play against Tampa Bay back in LA on Tuesday.
LA KINGS PROJECTED LINEUP vs. SAN JOSE SHARKS on 1/17
Iafallo – Kopitar – Fagemo
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Turcotte – Kupari – Brown
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Other options: Anderson-Dolan
IR: Andersson, Athanasiou
Protocol: Grundstrom, Kempe
Anderson – Doughty
Maatta – Roy
Bjornfot – Durzi
Other options: Moverare
Taxi Squad: Strand
Petersen (starter)
Quick
Taxi: Ingham
On the San Jose side of things:
(Sharks lineup coming soon)
KINGS MILESTONES WITHIN REACH
Anze Kopitar – needs 36 points to pass Dave Taylor for third on the Kings all-time scoring list
Dustin Brown — 6 goals away from passing Bernie Nicholls for fifth place in Kings franchise history
Drew Doughty — 6 games away from playing in his 1,000th NHL regular season game
Puck drop is scheduled for 1:00 pm PST today and the game will be on Bally Sports West.
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