Kings coach Todd McLellan has plenty of options at his disposal as the team begins a crucial six-game road trip in Nashville on Saturday. Sure, several forwards are out injured — namely, Trevor Moore and Arthur Kaliyev — yet reinforcements are available. Both Alex Turcotte and Sammy Fagemo are ready, willing, and able to slide into action, if needed.
What’s up with Gabe Vilardi? That’s the biggest question heading tonight’s matchup with the Predators. We’re assuming he slides back in at RW3, which pushes Jaret Anderson-Dolan back to RW4. If Vilardi still needs a few more days of rest, we’d expect McLellan to go with a similar lineup to Thursday; featured JAD at RW3 and Sammy Fagemo at RW4. In that same ‘without Vilardi’ scenario, could McLellan opt to put Kevin Fiala back on the third line, where he’s had a tremendous amount of success this season? Perhaps.
LA Kings Projected Lineup vs. Nashville Predators
Fiala – Kopitar – Kempe
Iafallo – Danault – Arvidsson
Byfield – Lizotte – Vilardi / JAD
Lemieux – Kupari – Fagemo
Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Walker
Copley
Quick
Scratches: Björnfot, Turcotte
Injured Reserve: Grundstrom (Jan. 19), Moore (Jan. 6), Kaliyev (retro to Dec. 20, expected out several weeks)
Additional Game Info
Puck drop is set for 5:00 pm PST and will be televised by Bally Sports.
In the Preds last game played, they lost to the Blues 5-2 in St. Louis on Thursday.
Here’s how Nashville lined up for that one:
Forsberg – Glass – Duchene
Niederreiter – Johansen – Granlund
Smith – Parssinen – Sissons
Trenin – Novak – Jeannot
McDonagh – Josi
Ekholm – Carrier
Lauzon – Fabbro
Saros
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Lineup image created by ALo Images
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