11-12 Preview – Petersen in Net + Finding Consistency, PP Zone Entries, Pushing Purple

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

The Kings conclude a four-game homestand this evening as they host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

• Cal Petersen
• Matt Roy
• Trevor Moore
• Arthur Kaliyev

• Todd McLellan

# Todd McLellan

He doesn’t have to play, but he has to play and he’s played better when he’s been back in the net. Quickie had a real good run, you don’t mess with a shutout in my opinion, so maybe Cal would have been back in earlier, but tonight’s his night, so make it count.

At this point, we have played consistently over the last little bit. We were dramatically inconsistent for a while, but consistently we roll out, we have an idea of what we’re going to expect from each other and that’s important. Are we playing at the top of our game, I don’t think so, I think there are areas of the game we still have to work on, but there’s a good chance we’re sitting here at game 82 and I’m still telling you the same thing. There’s no such thing as perfection and that’s where we want to be, but there is no such thing.

When the opposition gets on the ice and they win a draw and you’ve got to start continually from behind your net and get up ice, it can be frustrating. Nobody bats 1,000, so you come up and it doesn’t work the first time, now you’re even more frustrated. So, to play well in the offensive zone, you’re either going to do that by winning a faceoff and establishing or by breaking out and entering. Those two pieces go together and before the puck movement and rotation happens in the o-zone, you have to do those things. We’ve worked on that over the last little bit as well.

# Matt Roy

Yeah, I mean every day since camp started, it’s been a work in progress for us. I think we’re getting back to the things that we do well, that we did last year to get us into the playoffs. Hopefully we can keep that going.

# Trevor Moore

Yeah, I think that we’ve done a good job in taking ownership of our structure and making sure that we’re responsible, not turning as many pucks over. Less odd-man rushes against and we’re making it easier on our goalies. If we’re not giving them all of those odd-man rushes, making them make spectacular saves, they’re making all of the first saves. That’s good.

I think that entries are important, because if you’re getting in on the third try, you’re tired and it’s hard to do what you want to do. I feel like when we’re in there and we get in there earlier, we win the faceoff, we have some good looks and we’re trying to be a shooting power play. I think if we can get in the first time, it’s going to make everything a lot easier.

# Arthur Kaliyev

Probably getting into the zone and getting setup, getting to more pucks, retrieving them and having more of the puck in the zone and trying to get setup off the breakout.