Kempe reunited, Moverare on Debut, Roster Moves

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

The Kings had a well-deserved off day yesterday and were back in action this morning in preparation for an extended stretch of games here in California. The next six games the team will play will be in their home state, with five home games and a quick trip to San Jose on the docket over the next two weeks.

• Drew Doughty
• Sean Walker
• Kevin Fiala
• Jacob Moverare
• Lias Andersson
• Rasmus Kupari

• Todd McLellan

Todd McLellan

If the players felt like I did, yesterday was a good day for all of us. We needed to unpack our bags, put our feet up and just relax. It’s been a lot, it’s been emotional and taxing, but as I said, we can keep selling that story if we want, but everyone is going to go through it at some point. The day off was a good thing for us.

When we brought [Kevin Fiala] in, we brought him to play in that spot. We just had to settle some things down and get him fitting in and comfortable. He and I talked the other day, he said he feels way better about language, systems, structure and teammates, surroundings, so that’s a good sign.

I think we’re counting on that, we hope that will happen this time around more than it happened before. There’s three pieces to that puzzle, each one of them has to basically get done together. We believed from the summer, the day that we got Kevin here, that they could do it together, but we’ve got to try it again and see where it goes.

It helped Kevin and you get the third pair or you get the third line for the most part and if you get the job done, let’s face it, it’s an easier task for the most part, so hopefully that’ll help you. Gabe has played a lot of minutes, not double but significantly more, against tougher competition on a more consistent basis, from 21 games in 39 nights. Not an easy task.

We got exactly what we thought we would get, the same, simple, plays well defended, blocking shots. It was kind of nice to have a lefty and a righty on all the pairs and he gave us what we needed. He was well prepared and ready to go.

# Jacob Moverare

I try to always work hard when we have skates, even if it’s morning skate and I know that I’m not playing, I’ll work with [Skills Coach Derik Johnson] and [Goaltending Coach Bill Ranford] to stay in shape. I also try to mentally be ready every day, something could happen, so we cold play, so just try to be mentally ready.

I prefer to see what they do that I can apply to my game. I see, sometimes, small details and I see what works, so I try to see that and then apply it to my game and steal a little bit from what others are great at.