Kings will look to end their road woes in Winnipeg
The Kings landed in unseasonably warm Winnipeg, where it was a cozy 26 degrees on Monday, to conclude a demanding road swing that hasn't gone swimmingly ahead of today's finale against the Jets.
An intense trip tasked the Kings with confronting five playoff-caliber opponents and four of them in the span of just six nights, and it has seen the Kings win just one of four games thus far. They fell to an undermanned New York Rangers team, 5-2. Already down a defenseman, Ryan Lindgren, the Rangers lost another, K'Andre Miller, to a bizarre spitting incident in which he said he accidentally spat in the face of Kings defenseman Drew Doughty (Miller might be suspended and possibly for multiple games). Forward Ryan Carpenter only played 13 seconds, meaning the Rangers played much of the contest with 15 skaters rather than the customary 18.
Yet Kings coach Todd McLellan said it was his team that didn't have enough players to win, citing half a dozen or so passengers on the team bus Sunday.
“We were five or six players shy of having an opportunity to win,” McLellan said. “I'm not talking about the goaltender, I'm talking about positional players that just weren't sharp enough, they didn't make the plays they needed to make.”
McLellan said that while rolling three lines or two defense pairings, let alone both short-handed arrangements, wasn't sustainable over time, in short spurts it could actually benefit a team. Much like when a coach shortens his bench late in a game, matchups are disrupted and higherend players end up with more shifts, which McLellan said contributed to the Kings' fourth line “taking it on the chin.”
The Kings ended up utilizing both goaltenders in the loss, and will likely turn back to Pheonix Copley today
in Winnipeg. Wingers Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe finished January strong and share the team lead in February points despite neither putting ink on the scoresheet against the Rangers on Sunday or the New York Islanders on Friday. Wingers Trevor Moore and Carl Grundstrom remained sidelined against the Rangers. Moore is traveling with the team and may be an option against Winnipeg.
Salvaging a .500 points percentage on the trip is the best that the Kings can do with a two-point night north of the border. Like the Kings, the Jets have been drooping slightly in the thick of a dense divisional race. Three points separate four teams atop the Central and four points divide three clubs in the upper echelon of the Pacific. The Jets have been treading water at best lately, having lost their last three games and five of their past six, including four-goal losses in their two most recent outings.
Reinforcements are on the way, however, as the Jets acquired veteran winger Nino Neiderreiter from the Nashville Predators over the weekend. He will likely make his Winnipeg debut against the Kings. His arrival comes on the heels of an upper-body injury that will sideline forward Cole Perfetti for two months. Perfetti ranks third in scoring among NHL rookies this season.
Winger Kyle Connor paces Winnipeg in scoring and Josh Morrissey has posted the third-best point total of any defenseman in the league during 202223. Connor has 12 points in 13 career games against the Kings and Morrissey chipped in two assists in the only prior matchup of the campaign, a 6-4 Jets victory on Oct. 27. Goalie Connor Hellebuyck has remained a rock in net, tying for third league-wide in wins and sitting one shutout shy of the league leaders.