Iafallo skating lightly - Durzi rejoins practice - how McLellan chooses road starting lineups

Last updated Nov 30, 2022 Edit Source

• News post

• Jon Rosen

A very happy Thanksgiving to you, Forum Club. Lots to come during the holiday week. The Kings held an extended practice Wednesday at TSPC punctuated by a healthy conditioning skate.

• Alex Iafallo
• Sean Durzi

• Todd McLellan
• Trent Yawney

# Todd McLellan

We were a little heavier today. One, because we could be, and two, because we needed it.

[Alex Iafallo] Starting to skate, getting involved, but he won’t be in our lineup for a little while. Just getting on the ice – it’s not even a story right now.

What we don’t want, it happened in Seattle when we scored the shortie and the very next shot that came down was in our net again.

And neglect are the ones we’ll go after the players with. You’re going to hold them way more [accountable]. A mistake’s a mistake, and they’re going to be made. And the player himself, you’ve got to understand where he’s at. Is he really struggling? Because if he makes that mistake, you might have to soften it up because you put him further away. There are some players you don’t even need to say anything.

Trent Yawney’s always says ‘make sure you’re commissioned.’ If you make mistakes by commission, you live with it and you move on. If you make them through omission because you know exactly what to do and you decided to take the lazy route, or your commitment to structure or system is negligent, well then, you’ll hear about it.

I’m hoping whoever’s working upstairs [is] walking around saying, ‘Foxy, hell of a job. You did exactly what we needed you to do.’ And we do that – at least I believe we do – as much as [criticism], if that’s what you want to call it.

A lot will depend on who we’re playing. We have pre-scouts, we have a pretty good idea of how they want to start in their building. Some teams start the fourth lines and want to get physical, so we’re aware of that. We may counter with a different line. Sometimes we start a certain line to see how they want to match in their ice, so you salvage a first shift a little bit. So, there are different things that can be done to try and get a cue from the other team of what they’re going to do. We have a game plan going in of how we want to roll them out. You only get that probably 65% of the time, even at home, because things happen so fast – changes, penalties, injuries – but if you can get it 65 to 70 percent of the time your players are playing well, you’d like to use that home ice to your advantage.