10-2 Preview – Projected Lineup + Final 4 Plan, Walker’s Long Awaited Return, McLellan Video

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

• Sean Walker

• Todd McLellan

The Kings are back at it for their fourth game of the 2022 preseason, as they host the Anaheim Ducks tonight at Crypto.com Arena.

The plan is to play Quickie, he’ll start today and to play him a full game. If he doesn’t finish the night, something went wrong somewhere, but the plan is that. – Todd McLellan

A common theme around the league is you dress a few more veterans at home, you don’t have to travel them to wherever you’re going. They play big, big minutes during the year, so alleviating travel, I think you’re seeing that. The tendency is that the home team at points has a stronger lineup, or a more veteran-type lineup, because that’s where you want to play those individuals, while the road team tends to be a little younger, or guys that won’t play as much during the year. I think that’s a tendency around the league and that’s what we’re seeing again this year. – Todd McLellan

We’ve got four left and we play every second night, we’re still trying to evaluate some of the question marks and they need to continue to play, but we have to make sure now that the team is up and running. By the end of the training camp, the veterans should all have three or four games for sure. Maybe not quite today, but moving forward, you’d like to see all your units together at one point, pairs playing with each other on the penalty kill, I think that’s important. We still have a day or two here to evaluate and try to give opportunity to someone. Every player has a lifeline and some players have extended there’s, others, it’s shrunk on them. This is the week. – Todd McLellan

# Sean Walker

Very excited, it’ll probably be a lot of nerves for the first game back, even though it’s exhibition, but it’ll be exciting and nervewracking. I’m just trying to go out and play my game.

I think it’ll just be kind of the first of everything, the first three on two, the first battle along the boards, the first o-zone shift, the first shot on net. I think it’ll be a lot of things, just checking all the boxes and making sure that everything feels good. So I’m definitely excited, just want to go out there, not think about it too much and just play.

Yeah, we have a great group of guys and I think everybody kind of knew where I was coming from. There were definitely some plays that were hard and guys gave me some good bumps, but you know nothing ever really recreates when you’re playing against another team. It’ll be a good test and I’m excited for it.

Yeah, get that contact, I think that’s been a big thing. You know, I’ve done all the checklists and the skating, the positioning, whatever that is, but the body contact was probably the main thing. It’ll be a good test and like I said, I’m excited for it.

The biggest challenge was just not playing. A lot of people talk about the mental side of it, the physical side of it and luckily, I didn’t have too much of a struggle with it. I was able to come here and do my rehab every day, be with the guys every day and the team was great helping me out with anything I needed, getting me tickets to concerts, anything that could keep me busy. So, as much as it was trying year and it was awful because I wanted to be a part of it, I was able to do some things that you’re not able to do when you are playing a season. It was it was really difficult and everything but I made the most of it and I’m ready to be back.