On Saturday, the Los Angeles Kings went back to a 12 forwards, 6 defenseman alignment with back to back road games. The Kings wanted to have that extra forward to spread out the minutes for their forwards but in the process Brandt Clarke was the odd man out and was a healthy scratch.
This is now the third time since Drew Doughty returned that Brandt Clarke was a healthy scratch and the results are not good when the Los Angeles Kings decide to go this route. In the three games the Kings are 0-3 and the games haven't been relatively close as they have been out-scored 10-1.
At the end of January, the Kings would suffer back-to-back 3-0 losses to the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning before last night's loss to the St. Louis Blues by a final score of 4-1.
The absence of Clarke isn't the only similarity in these games as all three were also on the road. The Kings have struggled playing away from Crypto.com Arena, but when Clarke has been given the opportunity of meaningful minutes, the Kings have played better.
How can the Los Angeles Kings get Brandt Clarke more ice time?
While it is simple to say that Brandt Clarke needs to get more ice time or at the very least just be active, the solution to make that happen is not as clear. The Kings have three defenseman that are likely to get 20+ minutes of ice time every game in Vladislav Gavrikov, Mikey Anderson and Drew Doughty.
Gavrikov and Anderson have been the top pair, and unfortunately, Clarke would not be good to pair with Drew Doughty. The Kings have used Joel Edmundson alongside Doughty, who did play with Clarke for most of the season. This is where the issue really starts to come in because that leaves Jacob Moverare and Jordan Spence as the third pair. These two have spent most of the season playing with each other, and the Kings didn't want to break this pair up.
The best solution to this issue is trading one of their defenseman and the likely candidate seems to be Jordan Spence. He is still early in his career but has played well over the past two seasons. This would open up more ice time for Clarke and would be their best six with Kyle Burroughs as that seventh defenseman.
If the Kings are not able to trade any of their defensemen, it might be time to revisit the defensive pairings because the team can't afford going the rest of the season with Brandt Clarke seeing limited ice time, or being a healthy scratch consistently.