TONIGHT’S MATCH: The LA Kings are in Vegas for the finale of seven straight road games to open the season as they take on the Golden Knights in a Pacific Division showdown.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings posted a 1-1-1 record against Vegas last season, with the teams splitting games at T-Mobile Arena.

Forwards Adrian Kempe (2-2-4) and Anze Kopitar (1-3-4) led the Kings with four points apiece against the Golden Knights a season ago, while forward Trevor Moore added two goals from three games played.

KINGS VITALS: While the return home in between makes it feel different, tonight technically marks the conclusion of a seven-game season-opening road trip for the Kings.

The Kings held an optional morning skate in Vegas today. Goalie David Rittich did not skate, while Darcy Kuemper and Pheonix Copley did, pointing to Rittich as the starting goaltender tonight, his fourth consecutive nod between the pipes. Rittich has played against Vegas eight times during his professional career, posting a 2-6-0 record with an .872 save percentage and a 3.82 goals-against average.

No formal line rushes today, with the optional skate, but this is how the Kings lined up during yesterday’s practice –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala–Danault–Moore
Foegele – Turcotte – Laferrière
Lee – Thomas – Lewis – Jeannot

Anderson-Gavrikov
Edmundson-Clarke
Englund-Spence
Jones Burroughs

Rittich/Copley/Kuemper

Jim Hiller said this morning that “we’ll see” regarding possible lineup changes for tonight’s game. But after a win and two strong defensive team performances, I’m not sure I would expect any change. Hiller is ‘not married’ to the idea of ​​not changing your formation after a win, but indicates there is a good reason for not doing so.

“I think there’s a lot of merit in it, but I wouldn’t want to be married to that,” Hiller said. “Let me ask you this: if you’re having a challenging day at work and things are going really well for you, what are you going to do differently the next day? It’s not that easy, there’s a schedule, there’s people confused, there’s new people to get on board, there’s all these things to take into account, but you make decisions and you’re comfortable with how the boys played, sometimes you don’t want to change that.”

Should the Kings decide to make a move, forward Akil Thomas is available, as are defensemen Kyle Burroughs and Caleb Jones.

Darcy Kuemper is here in Vegas and skated this morning, which is a good sign he’s close. He’s still on injury reserve, though, and I don’t expect him back tonight. Still close.

VEGAS VITALS: The Golden Knights are 3-0-0 at home this season, though they return to Nevada after an 0-2-1 trip to the East Coast that ended Saturday.

According to Jesse Granger of The Athletic, here’s how the Golden Knights lined up during today’s morning skate –

Golden Knights morning skate line rushes:

Barbashev – Eichel – Steen
Howden-Hertl-Dorofeev
Pearson-Roy-Kolesar
Brisson-Schwindt-Holtz

Hanifin-Pietrangelo
McNabb-Theodore
Hedge – White cloud

— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) October 22, 2024

The rushes above show a pair of former Kings – forward Tanner Pearson and defenseman Brayden McNabb – who could play in tonight’s game.

Vegas forwards Jack Eichel (2-8-10) and Mark Stone (2-7-9) are each in the NHL Top-5 in assists and Top-10 in scoring in the early stages of the season. Shea Theodore is tied for second in the league among defensemen with six assists.

Storyline of the day – just a matter of time
Phillip Danault and Jim Hiller agreed this morning.

It’s only a matter of time before that line starts putting the puck in the net.

“We’ve had some great opportunities in the last two games, it’s just a matter of time I think,” Danault said. “I think it was there from the beginning, and I feel like we were hungry too, just being careful defensively first. Just a matter of time.”

Hiller said he’s “not worried about that line at all,” pointing to the number of chances they’ve created since reuniting in Montreal.

Over the last two games, in 5-on-5 situations, Kevin Fiala leads the Kings with seven shots on goal, while Trevor Moore is second with six. While Danault has played between them, they have had 19 shots on goal on the ice, compared to just nine against, and they have looked more dangerous together than apart. It was a familiar sight for all three boys after playing together for a while a season ago.

“Last year they played how much, three months, together,” Hiller added this morning. “They are a good line, they will score.”

Fiala has certainly had his chances to get into the board, with Hiller calling him “dangerous” against Montreal and Anaheim.

Still, he is tied for the team lead with four goals from six games played, but could be even higher, with numerous breakaway opportunities and a penalty in Montreal. Looking specifically at risk chances, no player had more than Fiala in the last two games. He was rewarded with the empty net goal in Anaheim and continues to generate chances for the Kings.

“I think he’s most comfortable with Phil and Mooresie, that’s for sure,” Hiller said. “I think Kevin has been pretty good. He’s probably handled the puck a little too much at times, but I think Kevin is in a really good spot. He looks faster this year for some reason……I think he skates better this year than last year. I think he’s in a good place.”

It just seems to work better.

Personally, I was really excited about the way Fiala and Quinton Byfield could potentially click on a score line. I know the Kings were too. The preseason was extremely optimistic, although the production didn’t quite translate into the regular season, albeit through only 3+ games. It had a lot of potential, we could see it returning at some point, but it didn’t click early as intended.

Nice to have a Plan B that has proven to have some success and that’s where we are now, with Fiala back alongside 12 and 24.

“Phil and Mooresie complement everyone, the way they play without the puck, they are tenacious,” Hiller added. ‘Kevin is a product of a few breaks. Those two are easy to play with as an offensive player because they have released a lot of pucks.”

We see that game turning into a big road game in a few goals tonight.

3 To pay attention to
– With Game 7 of 7 underway tonight, Hiller said it feels more like a five-game trip followed by a two-game trip.

“Really, when we came back, I think just coming home, the guys being able to see their families and get out in the sun a little bit, it felt like we got a reset,” Hiller said. “I would say this feels like a two-game journey.”

I would be inclined to agree.

Although officially it’s a seven-game trip.

With one game to go, the Kings have collected 8 of a possible 12 points so far. The all-time best seven-game trip for the Kings was a 6-1-0, in the 1974-75 season. While the Kings can’t match the 12-point mark, a win tonight would cap the second-best seven-game trip in franchise history, with nine points scored in 1991-92 currently carrying that distinction.

– Regarding Quinton Byfield, Jim Hiller said there is no timeline on when he will return to center.

It’s a tense set of questions, and understandably so, with the summer story surrounding Byfield’s move back to centre.

“There is no timeline for that at all. We don’t know when that will be. I said he would do that at some point, it could be for one game, for a period, for three games, I don’t know. I just know that I really like putting him in the middle and him playing a central role. We’ll just see. It’s nice to have the opportunity to come back to him halfway through.”

Hiller added that he wanted to make sure the changes weren’t made because the Kings were disappointed with Byfield’s play in the first place. Hiller has said four or five times now that this is not the case. He believes Byfield will be a long-term center and won’t hesitate to turn to him when the time is right and when he thinks it’s best for the team.

– Finally, the first national game of the season tonight, as ESPN will report from Las Vegas tonight.

8pm puck drop, which will actually be around 8:22pm local time……yelp.

Frozen Frenzy is pretty cool. All 32 teams in the league are in action, so there’s plenty of hockey to watch until this thing finally gets going.

Good test here for the Kings. Division match against a playoff team and we’ll see how the style translates as the competition perhaps steps up a notch. Big lead with a late puck drop!