The Los Angeles Kings travelled up to Minnesota late this weekend for one day of practice in the Twin Cities before facing the Wild in the final contest in a three-game Western Conference road trip this week on Oct. 13.
Los Angeles Kings face a big test in the offensive zone vs. the Minnesota Wild and Kirill Kaprizov early this upcoming week on the road
Today's practice for the Kings comes roughly 24 hours after LA faced the Winnipeg Jets on the road north of the border in Canada on Saturday afternoon. The Kings and head coach Jim Hiller have to focus on improving on defense in front of Darcy Kuemper in net in their own zone and converting more on the power play on special teams.
Making untimely mistakes and taking unnecessary and undisciplined penalties got the Kings in trouble and probably cost the team at least one of its two losses early this regular season against the Jets and Colorado Avalanche on opening night this past week.
The Kings have a chance to get back to .500 in terms of success in the win column early this upcoming week to cap a three-game road trip against the Wild and star forward Kirill Kaprizov. Both the Wild and Kings are looking to get back on the right side of the win column after respective losses this weekend to the Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Here are three bold predictions for the Kings' West road trip finale against the Wild and Kaprizov at Grand Casino Arena in Saint Paul, MN, on Oct. 13.
Kevin Fiala scores two power play goals
The special teams unit on the power play was a concern for the Kings this weekend vs. Winnipeg on Saturday. The Kings went 0-for-6 on the power play against the Jets, resulting in too many missed opportunities for LA to tie the game up on the scoreboard in clutch time in the third period.
The Kings need top forwards for the top two power play units on special teams, namely Kevin Fiala, Anze Kopitar, Quinton Byfield, and Adrian Kempe, to step up and put the puck in the net.
In the season's first two games, the Kings' power play was pretty effective. The Kings scored at least one goal on the power play in the season's first two games against the Golden Knights and the Avalanche this past week in back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday.
This past regular season, Fiala led the Kings' special teams unit in power play goals with 14. He scored five power play goals against Western Conference foes from the Pacific Division this past season.
Fiala is one of just two Kings' forwards who have over 0.50 expected goals on the power play this regular season (per Natural Stat Trick). He's already got one power play goal this season. The Wild allowed a power play goal from the Blue Jackets in the loss to Columbus yesterday on three chances.
Either Cody Ceci or Brian Dumoulin is a healthy scratch
The results from the Kings' defensive pairing of Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci on the blue line early this regular season this fall has been about as expected from the LA fans since this past offseason in the summer.
The Kings' top defensive pairings haven't been all that impressive early this regular season this fall. Outside of Brandt Clarke and Mikey Anderson, the Kings need more production on both ends of the ice out of its top six on the blue line on defense.
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I think there's something that could work if the Kings play Dumoulin with either Clarke or maybe Drew Doughty. The problem the Kings face is that Ceci doesn't have a clear defensive partner. I don't think the answer for the Kings would be to scratch Dumoulin for Jacob Moverare with Ceci on a defensive pairing.
It also could make sense for the Kings to try to split up Dumoulin and Ceci to see if the latter of those two defensemen could improve his game on both ends of the ice playing with either Edmundson or Anderson.
At the very least, the Kings should probably try to manuever the defensive pairings once Kyle Burroughs returns from the upper-body injury he suffered a couple of weeks ago this fall in the preseason in late September.
Moverare and Burroughs will definitely see some more minutes with the blue-line group on defense if the Kings can't get it together with the current group, with Ceci among the top six pairings for this core. Moverare definitely could bring some stability and consistency to the Kings' blue-line group with how reliable he was for LA in training camp and the preseason this fall.
Kings hold Wild to just two goals scored
The Kings need to get a better jump in the opening frame in the first period tomorrow against the Wild. Hiller and the Kings have relied too much on coming back in the second and third periods late in the game against the Golden Knights and Jets to close out games and find more success in the win column early this regular season.
Head coach John Hynes and the Wild face a similar issue of needing more stability and consistency for a full 60 minutes in a game this fall, early in the regular season. After the Wild dominated the Blues in the regular season opener this past week by a commanding score of 5-0, Minnesota never led on the scoreboard in a 7-4 loss to Columbus on Saturday this weekend.
In Minnesota's first two games, the Wild averaged nearly five goals per game and over 35 shots on goal against the Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Expect Kuemper to start for the Kings tomorrow against the Wild after he posted the best start of the season in the 3-2 loss to the Jets yesterday. Kuemper started his career playing in Minnesota with the Wild in the early to mid-2010s.