Following the team’s pregame morning skate, Kings coach Peter Laviolette met with the gathered media to share thoughts on several topics heading into his squad’s first exhibition game at Crypto.com Arena. Below are key items shared by LA’s new bench boss.
On prospect Liam Lefebvre making his preseason debut with the Kings:
There always has to be that first — there’s always a first of everything, for everybody in life. And so [he’s getting his] first time in that atmosphere, with bigger lineups. I think the more games you see played at this point, the bigger the lineup gets, and the more realistic it is to make that jump to the National Hockey League — for anybody, I’m talking about. And again, it goes back to an opportunity for him to show what he can do.
On what he’s been able to see and appreciate in Lefebvre’s game thus far:
Through camp, just watching him move. He’s a big guy — I think he’s maybe 6-foot-3, but he’s big and he skates well, he moves well, and he’s got a good skill set on him. He’s got a good release on his shot. But inside of that, that’s when you’ve got to bring it into a game. And again, the deeper into camp, the heavier the competition gets. So I guess a great look for him.
On Brandt Clarke finding balance between the defensive growth in his game and also fitting really well into an offensive-defenseman system that he’d like to see LA play:
I feel like that if we don’t play good defense, we’ll find it harder to win hockey games. We lost the game the other night because we made some poor decisions on the line changes that led to some odd-man rushes, and they were able to capitalize off of that. So he and the rest of the group have to continue to be responsible defensively. If they’re not, then it becomes more challenging to win a hockey game.
The key, I think, is what we do when we have possession of the puck, and that’s when the opportunity presents itself to generate and to create and to be a little bit more creative. But there’s that gray area of when things are in question, whose possession the puck really is — we need to think about the game defensively first, because that’s when things can get away from you.
And I thought a couple of line changes were tough the other night, and we left the weak side of the ice open trying to get off the ice. It was the batted puck in the neutral zone that had us changing and three forwards thinking that maybe they were going to get underneath that puck that was flipped, and it comes back quick. And so you’ve just got to pay attention to what you’re doing up there.
On the possibility of some goaltenders splitting time in one of the preseason games, just because the math doesn’t add up with five legit goalies in camp and only four games:
Right now, the schedule is just going to put our two guys [Kuemper and Forsberg] in the net. You never know what happens inside of the game, but right now that’s the schedule.
On how much time he’s able to spend evaluating goalies specifically during training camp; and how that impacts a guy like Erik Portillo:
Those are decisions that we make inside [the coaches’ room]. Ultimately, I have to make decisions, but those decisions come inside of a group. And with regard to the other goaltenders, I think they played really well, all of them, to be honest with you. They’re going to have to continue to work, and that’s what the scrimmages were for in rookie camp. And at the end of the day, we have a couple of guys that are on contracts, and these are the guys that we need to get ready.
On Mikey Anderson and Brandt Clarke playing together as a pair at times in camp:
Again, every time that there’s something going on — whether it be in practice, whether it be in a scrimmage, or whether it be power-play, penalty-kill situations out here, or what we’re putting into the game groups — [we’re evaluating]. The first game wasn’t anything close to what we look like on opening night. These next two nights are kind of split, as well, but there’s pieces of things that we want to see. And then there’s opportunity for younger players to get those chances to try and show what they can do. So that was a pairing that we had made a switch in practice, and then we wanted to bring it into the game.
On how often he has a perception of a player, from playing against them and coaching against them, that it changes when you get the opportunity to actually coach that player:
I think that happens probably more than people think. You see somebody on the ice and you have an opinion of them on the opposition, but then when you get a chance to coach them — and that could go either way, too. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s always for the good. It could be two different avenues. And so you always learn a lot more about a team and a player, and the way that people go about their daily business, when you work with them on a daily basis.
On what he may have learned or picked up on from watching a lot of hockey last year on TV, while not being right in the mix; maybe subtle things that have changed a little bit:
I watched most of the hockey as we were moving towards the playoffs and then in the playoffs — that’s when I watch most of the hockey. I think sometimes when you step back from it and you sit in your living room and watch a game on TV, you see how much it just ramps up in those playoffs, like the intensity of it. You can see it — the checking, the physicality to it, the speed and the determination to be successful. Not that it’s not there in the regular season, and not that it wasn’t there 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I’m sure it was, but I was off and out of it. And so you sit there and you watch that.
I think the skill as well — the players now are so fit when they come to camp. There’s so many things involved in the evolution of their game, the speed and the skill. I think everything keeps moving. It’s like the world, or it’s like technology. It moves. It’s not that it was bad back in 1970 or ’80 or ’90, whatever. It’s just that it keeps moving and trying to grow and trying to expand itself and get better. And I feel like the athletes are kind of the same way. There’s mental performance coaches and there’s sleep doctors and there’s skill coaches and there’s skating coaches, and that’s before they even get to our camp — and they’re handling all of that on their own. And so that’s a big evolution of the game.
And then the technology part also coming in, whether it be as simple as video or if it extends to biomechanics or if it extends to analytics. Those things I think are starting to play into the game as well. They’re newer, but they’re starting to play in.
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