12-10 Preview – Copley In Net + Same Alignment Expected, Clears on the PK, Durzi and Suzuki

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

The Kings look to get back on track this evening in Montreal, with the third game of their current roadtrip on the docket.

• Pheonix Copley
• Carl Grundstrom
• Blake Lizotte
• Trevor Moore
• Sean Durzi

• Todd McLellan

# Todd McLellan

It can go both ways. We have to plan our lineup based on our reaction to the game and how we dealt with it yesterday. We made the decision that we’re prepared to give that group a chance, after our meeting yesterday, to try and turn it around.

We travel a lot and we travel in large chunks, not just the Kings but all the teams out [West] and you have to learn to manage the good and the bad. Often, when it’s not going well as was the case yesterday, you want to get on the ice and grind it a little bit, but that doesn’t make any sense because it can be very taxing on the group. There are ups and downs on long roadtrips and you can’t carry the last game into the next one, you’ve got to move on quickly. Those are all things we’re trying to apply on this trip.

There are some rehearsed situations, where a puck is dumped in and you get a touch on it, you have some outs you’d like to use, but every situation is different. Fatigue comes into play, the ice conditions, where the forecheckers are. A lot of times we’re frustrated with clears, because it’s just on our tape, but you have a fraction of a second to react. It’s really hard to work on.

# Carl Grundstrom

We’ve got to get better clears, I think. It’s hard. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way, but I think our clears and our structure have to be where they should be.

# Blake Lizotte

I think it’s about four guys being on the same page. Whether you’re pressuring or sitting back, I think that’s big for our team is getting four guys on the same page going forward.

# Trevor Moore

I think we’ve done some good things, but sometimes it’s just the clears or the little mistakes that are costing us. We’ve got to be on the same page and if there’s a loose puck or a breakdown, we have to all be going, it’s not just one guy or two guys.

# Sean Durzi

[Nick Suzuki and Sean Durzi have] had a bunch of family who wanted to come out and we know we wanted to have [our billet family] at the game. We kind of joked about it, even when I didn’t have an NHL career in sight at the time, of having them at our game against each other one day, or on the same team. It happens to be against each other and we’re going to set them up with some good seats and go from there.

They’re awesome, we were super fortunate to have them, they had been billets for 20 years when we had them, they’ve seen it all. For us to still be in touch and for them to be coming to our game in Montreal is going to be special, it’ll be really awesome, we were blessed to have them and still have them in our lives.