12-13 Preview – Doughty “should be good to go” + JAD in Top 6, Another Response, A BuffalOff Day

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

We’ve reached the back third of the six-game roadtrip here tonight, as the Kings visit the Buffalo Sabres for the first time this season.

• Pheonix Copley
• Viktor Arvidsson
• Drew Doughty
• Trevor Moore
• Anze Kopitar
• Jaret Anderson-Dolan
• Alex Iafallo

• Todd McLellan

# Trevor Moore

We just haven’t been checking the way that we want to check and it starts in our own end, taking care of the puck. You want to score, but if you turn pucks over, it ends up in your net and it’s a minus, right? We have to check well and play good defensively.

# Anze Kopitar

Just being little bit more consistent, obviously. We gave up quite a few goals and quite a few of those goals were caused by some errors that normally don’t happen to us. Cleaning that up and get on to winning ways again.

# Todd McLellan

We still have to concern ourselves with what we’re leaving on the table, as we try and attack the offensive zone. Until we solidify that, we’ll likely end up in those games and I don’t think that favors the Kings very much, so obviously we’ve got some things to fix. Buffalo has their own way of playing and their own style, but we’ve got to worry about the white team tonight.

It’s part [Jaret Anderson-Dolan], and part Kempe’s line and Lizzo’s line right now, they have some unity and I think that putting Sammy Fagemo back in will fit well with Lizzo’s line, so JAD was the one to go up. He’s performed pretty well over the last few games, he’s been quite responsible defensively, using his legs to create time and space for himself and for his teammates. We’ll try that and we’ll see how it goes.

Those opportunities are really good for the team, especially when you tie it into somebody’s family and we’re talking about Iafallo’s family here. Al means a lot to everybody in that locker room, I think you get the sense of that when I talk about him. For Al’s family to be gracious enough to invite the whole group over and the group, to a man, responds and all goes, it’s a good team-building event. It’s also good when you have a day off to be occupied a little bit, you’re not just laying around, so overall that day is two checkmarks. It sounds like the players had a lot of fun, but now we move on and back to work.

# Jaret Anderson-Dolan

Just play your game, that’s all you can do. Maybe you adjust a little bit and realize that they’re going to be in different spots than other players might be on different lines, but you just adjust to that and I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Obviously, you want to produce when you’re playing with guys like that and I think they’re capable of bringing me up to their level, but I also think I’m capable of playing up to their level. I think it’s a mixture of both, just bringing my game into that line, but also look to make some plays and create some offense.