It’s funny how one win can calm the waters.
Coming off of two winless efforts at home to start their 2022-23 season, the Kings played run-and-gun hockey with the Wild on Saturday night and left Minnesota with a 7-6 victory.
Clearly, it was just what the doctor ordered.
Looking ahead to Monday night in Detroit, coach Todd McLellan and his players have a chance to get back to .500 before finishing out the road trip with stops in Nashville, Pittsburgh and Washington.
Your #GoKingsGo question of the day…
Last season, LA dominated SOG in their two games vs Detroit #LGRW — outshooting them 42-21 at home and 45-25 in the Motor City.
What will happen tonight?
— The Mayor (@mayorNHL) October 17, 2022
Although McLellan may not have been overly thrilled with the high number of goals allowed last time out, we’d largely expect him to keep the lineup in tact — sans a goalie swap, opting to slide Jonathan Quick back between the pipes. However, at some point, he’ll need to get Carl Grundstrom back in and Jaret Anderson-Dolan his first sniff of the young campaign. It’s still early, yet they likely don’t want him sitting out for too long.
LA Kings Projected Lineup vs Detroit Red Wings
Fiala – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Byfield – Vilardi
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev / Grundstrom
Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Clarke
Quick
Petersen
Healthy scratches: Walker, Anderson-Dolan, Grundstrom
Additional Game Notes
Puck drop is set for 4:00pm PST on Monday and will be televised by Bally Sports.
Over on the Detroit side of things, here are a few additional items to pass along…
The Red Wings third line of Elmer Soderblom (6-foot-6), Michael Rasmussen (6-foot-6), and Oskar Sundqvist (6-foot-3) is said to be the biggest line in NHL history, coming in at an average of 230 lbs. After debuting with six points last time out, they’re expected to remain together vs. LA. Their bulk is something the Kings could one day counter with a line of Andre Lee, Sammy Helenius, and Kaleb Lawrence. All three prospects are around 6-foot-6.
There will be a few changes in the Wings lineup tonight, as well. With Tyler Bertuzzi out 4-6 weeks, former Kings prospect Dominik Kubalik will see top line action. Left wing Jakub Vrana will also sit this one out due to personal reasons.
On defense, Detroit will feature former LA blueliner Olli Maatta.
No Bertuzzi at Red Wings morning skate. Also don’t see Vrana.
Kubalik Larkin Raymond
Zadina Copp Perron
Söderblom Rasmussen Sundqvist
Suter Veleno ErneChiarot Seider
Määttä Hronek
Hägg Lindström
Oesterle Walman— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) October 17, 2022
Refs Wes McCauley and Kevin Pollock work #GoKingsGo #RedWings with Tommy Hughes and Andrew Smith https://t.co/2BySKf5zoo #LAK #DET #LAKvsDET #LAKings #LGRW #NHL pic.twitter.com/zxCOtXoeAz
— Scouting The Refs (@ScoutingTheRefs) October 17, 2022
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I was glad to see your comment about the size of some of the kings prospects. I’m also quite enjoying the play of Byfield and Velardi together. Velardi’s starting to show his true potential, and by field may not be scoring a lot but he’s definitely winning a lot of battles along the boards. and yes, the long reach both of these guys have seems to be a much more important skill these days in the NHL. Having Hallenius and Lee and the other big kid coming up will be exciting.