The Kings’ morning skate came with a different look, and the message from Peter Laviolette was hard to miss: this team needs more goals.
Los Angeles was back on the ice Wednesday for the first of two practices before Saturday’s game against Boston, and the line combinations were shuffled around from what the Kings have been using. The group still skated together, but the alignment had a few notable twists:
Panarin - Laferriere - Kempe
Moore - Byfield - Haula
Armia - Laughton - Weight
Lee - Helenius - Perry
Zuccarello
Gustafsson - Clarke
Edmundson - Doughty
Anderson - Dumoulin
Ceci
Kuemper / Forsberg
The biggest change is obvious: Quinton Byfield was moved off the top line, opening a spot for either Alex Laferriere or Adrian Kempe to handle center. That setup, at least for one practice, gave the Kings a different look as they try to shake loose an offense that has stalled badly.
Laviolette was clear that nothing is set yet, but he also didn’t hide the reason the coaching staff is testing things out.
“First of all, it was just practice today. There’s another practice tomorrow, that doesn’t mean that the line will be the same.
We’re looking at it because we need to generate more offense. I think that the line you’re talking about you’re talking about is Quinton’s line, correct?
I thought that they were in the offensive zone really the entire night and I thought that they did an excellent job offensively inside the game, but we still find ourselves not producing the way we want to. We put up 41 shots, I think we generated a lot of chances, enough chances, but I’d still like to see more in different areas from our group.
We went over that today. It’s not based on what they did or they didn’t do, I thought that they did a lot, I thought they played hard and they were in the offensive zone.
It’s more for me that we need to continue to look at it because we’re not scoring enough.”
The Kings have scored one goal in three straight games, and they’re winless in five. They also sit last in the NHL in 5-on-5 goals, which makes some sort of lineup adjustment feel less like a debate and more like a necessity.
Zuccarello’s status appears to be part of the equation, too. He was on the ice, wore a full-contact jersey and took part in most drills, including a couple of smaller-area games that added some physicality.
Still, he wasn’t in every drill, and during full-line work he wasn’t on a line at all. Instead, he took defensive shifts with Ceci to even out the numbers.
That suggests he’s getting close, but perhaps not quite ready to be fully slotted in yet. Based on the updates around him, it doesn’t seem out of step with a timeline that’s now around 10 days from his last game.
The broader picture is simple enough: the Kings are not scoring, and the coaching staff is trying to find combinations that can change that. The Kempe-Panarin pairing has the track record from last season, and Laferriere appears to be a natural fit in that mix because of how he plays away from the puck and around the net-front areas.
Laviolette’s group spent time Wednesday working directly on offense, which led to the usual question: how exactly do you practice scoring more goals?
It’s easier to point to forechecking, the neutral zone or the penalty kill. Those are easier to isolate. Finishing chances is messier.
Laviolette laid out the kinds of drills the team uses.
“I think that you can become confident as you find production, so we do work on things in practice all the time, whether it be offensive, small-area games, guys trying to move the puck quicker, drills that are set up to get to the interior, tip drills for shots that are coming in from the point, traffic drills, screen drills, I think there’s a lot of things that you can try to work on. Ultimately, I have a lot of belief that the players in the room they have scored 20 goals, 25 goals, 30 goals, 35 goals, 40 goals in their past, I believe that they’re capable of doing that and it hasn’t fallen for us. I think once it does, I think you start to gain a little bit of confidence from that as well.”
Byfield’s role remains one of the key moving parts. Even if he’s off the top line for now, it would be a surprise if this were the last time he skates with Kempe, Panarin or both. With Zuccarello and eventually Kevin Fiala working their way back into the picture, the combinations could keep changing.
For now, though, the Kings are trying to force a breakthrough. One practice may not settle anything, but it did make the team’s priority unmistakable. They need goals, and they need them soon.
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