LA Kings: Carl Grundstrom Beaming Over Success with Moore, JAD

Despite their loss on Friday night, the LA Kings are headed in the right direction. That may not be apparent right now but few can deny the hard work put in by many of its players this season. This includes the LA Kings’ fourth line, consisting of Trevor Moore, Jaret Anderson-Dolan, and Carl Grundstrom.

For the latter, in particular, while his four goals and three assists in 27 games may not seem like much to write home about, he has picked up his play as of late since being paired with Moore and Anderson-Dolan. This was especially apparent on Wednesday night when he scored a highlight-reel goal vs. St. Louis — a goal which would eventually stand as the game-winner.

On Friday morning, Grundstrom spoke with the media about how he’s been enjoying success on a line with Moore and Anderson-Dolan.

“All three of us want to play fast,” the Swedish winger said. “We think kind of the same and we just hit it off good. So, yeah, I’m loving playing with these two, for sure.”

As a linemate, Grundstrom has been a lot more familiar with Moore lately. Unfortunately for Jaret Anderson-Dolan, he had been sidelined with an injured since mid-February and only returned to the LA Kings’ lineup on Wednesday. While Grundstrom and Moore were certainly thrilled to be reunited with Anderson-Dolan, though, it was only natural to feel reluctant as the rust of any player returning from inactivity can interrupt chemistry, even if it’s short-term.

If anyone was worried about this with this line, though, they were quickly reassured otherwise as the trio picked up right where they left off, combining for five points in Wednesday’s victory.

“Yeah, JAD was playing really good from the start,” Grundstrom noted. “That’s impressive, for sure, for being away that long. Usually, it takes a couple of games to get back where we were before but he was ready to go right away.

“I think we played really good together. We played good before JAD got hurt as well, so we just tried to keep building from what we had before and just keep going.”

Outside of a Trevor Moore goal that tied the game, the trio was held pointless on Friday against Vegas. Still, Moore, Anderson-Dolan, and Grundstrom have really come into their own as a line, displaying a solid effort nonetheless in spite of Friday’s defeat.

For Grundstrom, in particular, he has really come into his own with the LA Kings since coming over from Toronto in January 2019 in the trade that sent Jake Muzzin to the Maple Leafs.

There’s no telling how the LA Kings will fare for the remainder of the season but you can be certain that the trio of Moore, Anderson-Dolan, and Grundstrom will continue to be a bright spot for the silver-and-black whether the club wins or loses.

No matter what, the trio has been exciting to watch.