Following the first NHL game to be played in the Southern Hemisphere, hockey is borrowing a phrase from baseball legend Ernie Banks — Let’s Play Two!
On Saturday night (Los Angeles time), the Kings and Coyotes will square off for the second night in a row as part of the 2023 Global Series in Melbourne, Australia.
Converting the famous Rod Laver Arena into an actual hockey spot was quite the chore, as captured in this timelapse video:
We are moments away from the Los Angeles Kings taking on the Arizona Coyotes in the NHL Global Series!
Lets see how they have transformed Rod Laver Arena into a full rink!
Watch the game live on ESPN! pic.twitter.com/AGJAC1DfWO
— ESPN Australia & NZ (@ESPNAusNZ) September 23, 2023
And of extra special note, the faceoff dots paid tribute to the building’s legendary status as the home of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
Now, back to the actual hockey at hand.
Several things are in play heading into Game 2. Kings coach Todd McLellan has traditionally been open to lineup changes coming off of a loss anyway. Yet, with the club taking 27 players Down Under, their plan was to give every guy at least one game of action. Thus, six new skaters will enter the lineup for the second set of Saturday’s back-to-back games vs. Arizona. So, who comes out of the LA lineup? That’s the big question.
Coming into the trip, we expected veteran Trevor Lewis to only get one game. That’s one piece of the puzzle solved. We also wouldn’t expect Jacob Doty to get more than one game — despite his fight with Coyotes defenseman Josh Brown in Game 1. Two openings have now been created.
Carl Grundstrom usually plays a fourth line role for the Kings, so slotting him back in there is a pretty safe assumption. Plus, given the fact that Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Sammy Fagemo have been practicing together this week, we’ll assume they stay together as a unit, which helps round out the fourth line.
Predicting what to do with Alex Turcotte is a bit of a challenge. On one hand, Arthur Kaliyev is getting the expected audition at RW3 on a line with PL Dubois and Kevin Fiala. Would McLellan want to take this opportunity to give another player a look there so early in camp? Or would he like to see a few game sample from the line before making changes? We’re going to assume the former, which would also perhaps give Turcotte his best opportunity to shine offensively. Dubois is also known to play a physical game and does not back down from confrontation, thus adding a bit of a protector role for Turcotte — something not likely afforded him should he be slotted in with Phil Danault and Trevor Moore (which would push Viktor Arvidsson over to the Fiala-Dubois line).
On defense, things are a bit more complicated. It would normally be easy to just swap out Friday’s third line of Andreas Englund and Jordan Spence for the pair of defenders scratched in Game 1. There are two problems to consider, though. First, it seems almost impossible that the Australian-born Spence is coming out. Second, both Toby Bjornfot and Jacob Moverare are left shots. That usually doesn’t make an ideal third pair. We’ll assume it’s Mikey Anderson coming out, simply because we’ll assume McLellan wants to keep the size of Vladislav Gavrikov in the lineup, plus Drew Doughty has mentioned many times how much he previously enojoyed playing with Bjornfot.
Again, this is all based on a set of assumptions. McLellan could choose to go in a different direction or two.
For example, at some point he will likely want to take a look at a Gavrikov-Spence pairing. However, would McLellan really want three new defensive pairings tonight?
Cam Talbot is expected to debut his new Will Ferrell themed goalie mask.
LA Kings PROJECTED Lineup vs. Arizona Coyotes
Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Dubois – Turcotte
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Grundstrom – JAD – Fagemo
Bjornfot – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Moverare – Spence
Talbot
Copley
Likely scratches: Anderson, Doty, Englund, Kaliyev, Lewis, Lizotte
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 9:00 pm PT and will be televised by the NHL Network and ESPN+.
Across the Ice
In Friday’s Global Series opener, the Coyotes used this lineup:
Keller – Hayton – Schmaltz
Maccelli – Bjugstad – Crouse
O’Brien – Boyd – Kerfoot
Zucker – Cooley – Guenther
Moser – Dumba
Välimäki – Durzi
Stecher – Brown
Ingram
Vejmelka
Expectations are that Arizona coach Andre Tourigny will at least slide Jack McBain in at forward (possibly replacing Liam O’Brien) and flip his goalies. Other changes could take place, as well.
On This Day in Kings History
The game that many people have forgotten about:
On September 23, 1995, the @LAKings and New York Rangers met in Las Vegas for the second time in four years. Wayne Gretzky had two points, and the #LAKings came back from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Rangers, 6-4, before 8,070 fans at the Thomas & Mack Center.#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/ytzc18UlKA
— The Kingstorian (@Kingstorian) September 23, 2023
RELATED CONTENT:
Game Highlights: Coyotes def. Kings 5-3 in Game 1 from Australia
AUS GAME 1: Projected Lineups for LA Kings vs. Arizona Coyotes
Lead Image via ALo Images
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