11-11 Practice – Diving into lineup changes and the state of the power play with Todd McLellan

Last updated Unknown Edit Source

• News post

• Zach Dooley

With the big club, the Kings were back on the ice today as the rhythm of the schedule starts to pick up. In many areas of the game, we’ve seen that rhythm hit translate onto ice. The Kings have played drastically better defensively as of late. Three of the last four games have seen the team allow one or fewer goals playing 5-on-5. The Florida game aside, the Kings have allowed five total goals during 5-on-5 play between their previous six games played. As Phil Danault said last night, it’s more like Kings hockey.

• Alex Turcotte
• Anze Kopitar
• Brandt Clarke
• Jaret Anderson-Dolan
• Cal Petersen

• Todd McLellan

# Todd McLellan

We are a work in progress and we’re going be talking about that. We have a new coach coming in with some power play ideas, it doesn’t happen right away. Sometimes, it gets going and you try to add a bit more on and as you add a bit more, you stunt what you had, because they begin to think again. When we’re just playing, when teams just play special teams, it’s valuable. When teams think then, you can still be good, but odds are you’re not going to be where you want to be.

Part of our power-play issue is that everybody thinks they have a spot to play and they’ve got to get to that spot. That isn’t how it works. It’s hockey, you’re going to roll around and be in different spots. If [Anze Kopitar] ends up net front, great, but he could end up on the blue line running things from up there, you have to be interchangeable pieces and you won’t be predictable if you’re moving. If you’re standing around in the same spots and it’s predictable if you’re standing still.

We’re trying to do our best to win as a group and we make decisions based off of that, simple as that.

It’s really [Brandt Clarke] and [Jaret Anderson-Dolan] right now, the two individuals that have been out for more than two or three games and it’s not easy. We have to look at them as individuals and they’re great human beings to begin with, they want to be in but when they’re not, we have to be responsible as a staff to make sure that they’re prepared to be. That’s the hard part, because JAD has missed the most and he’s worked so hard, so we have to understand that we have to make sure he gets his reps, but we also have to help him when he’s ready to go. Part of being on the team, regardless of where you are in your career, is sometimes accepting that and it’s not always easy.

Yeah, I think it’s different [with goalies], it’s one or the other. With forwards, you’re picking from 12 bodies but with a goalie, it’s a team game and you’ve got an individual spot. With forwards, you have three guys that you have to intertwine your game with, defensive pairs, five at a time, different units. Goalies play with the team all the time, but they play their position as an individual more than anybody else.

They don’t know what they don’t know, so when they arrive, they’re not sure how this all happens. Just think, they’ve had a dream their whole life of playing in the NHL, now they’ve arrived and they’re here now, so okay what happens? Play a game, next day practice, but now I’m out, what do I do now, how do I behave, why is this happening to me? We’ve got to spend a lot of time talking to these individuals, maybe Clarkie more than JAD right now, because he’s arrived and things are going okay and all of a sudden you’re not in the lineup but why, how do you need to behave? He’s never been a healthy scratch his whole life. Pee wee, bantam, midget, juniors, he’s just kept on playing. His approach to the day might be, throughout his career so far, maybe more similar to what Drew Doughty does after playing 30 minutes a night. Drew’s accountability in practice may be a little different than what Brandt Clarke has, just because of minutes, time and experience. So Brandt is Drew in juniors, but Brandt is in juniors anymore. He’s got to figure all that out and we have to help them.