The Los Angeles Kings have won four straight games and are squarely in second place in the Pacific Division. This is important as the regular season quickly approaches and while another playoff meeting with the Edmonton Oilers seems likely, this season could be different if they are able to secure home ice in that first round.
For the past few weeks, the Kings have been fortunate in that they have not had to deal with many injuries and have gotten some consistency with the lines and pairings they have been able to use. Recently has been a different story as Trevor Moore missed the game on Sunday against the Boston Bruins but returned for the game against the Rangers. However, Alex Turcotte missed the game on Tuesday due to an upper body injury and it is viewed as day-to-day.
It remains to be seen if Turcotte can return for Thursday's game against the Colorado Avalanche but even if he does, the Kings are still going to be down a player. During the game against the Rangers, Tanner Jeannot left with an injury and Jim Hiller after the game has already ruled him out for the Avalanche game as he stated he won't travel to Colorado.
The Kings do have some options and likely won't make any determination until shortly before the game against the Avalanche. Let's break down a few different scenarios.
Alex Turcotte is available for the Los Angeles Kings and Jeannot replaced by Trevor Lewis
The most straight forward scenario at this point is that Alex Turcotte is able to return, and assuming Jeannot is the only player ruled out, then he would be replaced by Trevor Lewis. The veteran forward didn't play much since the trade deadline as he was the odd man out with the addition of Andrei Kuzmenko.
However, he has been the team's first option the past two games as he replaced Moore against the Bruins and then Turcotte against the Rangers. What is notable in both situations is that the Kings didn't shuffle their lines and just added Lewis to the line the player he was replacing was on.
Alex Turcotte is unable to play against the Colorado Avalanche
If Alex Turcotte is unable to play against the Colorado Avalanche, then the Kings really have three options to build out their lineup for this game. The first option is for Akil Thomas to join Trevor Lewis on that fourth line alongside Samuel Helenius.
While Thomas has been with the Kings all season, he has not been active much and has played in only one game since February 7th. That game was on March 1st against the St. Louis Blues.
The second option would be to call up Andre Lee from the Ontario Reign for this game. He has a similar game to Jeannot in that he is a big body and brings some physicality to the game. Lee would be a better fit than Thomas based on his skill set.
The last option would be for the Kings to go back to a 11/7 structure with Lewis active but then having Jacob Moverare return to the lineup. Similar to Lewis, Moverare had been playing regularly but has fallen out of the lineup as the Kings went to a more traditional 12/6 roster alignment.
The Avalanche are one of the top-scoring teams in the NHL and have scored five goals in each of their past three games. It wouldn't be surprising to see the Kings fall back on what they do well and that is limited shots and play defense so having an extra defenseman could make sense.
This does come with some risk as the defensive pairings since the trade deadline have done well and it's not something the coaching staff may want to disrupt.
The good news is that the Kings are going to have options ahead of Thursday's game and if Alex Turcotte is able to play then it is a little more straightfoward. However, if he can't then it becomes a little trickier for the Kings.