Practice 10-12 - Identity Through 3 Periods + Notes on Vilardis Speed, Fourth Goal, Looking Ahead - LA Kings Insider
# Practice 10-12 - Identity Through 3 Periods + Notes on Vilardis Speed, Fourth Goal, Looking Ahead - LA Kings Insider
# Contributors
# Players
# Staff
# Summary
The Kings hit the ice this morning for practice in between games against Vegas last night and Seattle to come tomorrow. Game 1 versus Vegas could probably be summed up in one word, which Todd McLellan reinforced this morning – Second.
# Notes and Quotes
# Todd McLellan
We were second to everything. You could look at it from an analytics standpoint, use all the stats you want, but there’s a reason for those stats. When we needed to be first, we were second. We were slow, poor execution, second everywhere.
I think that we had an idea of what we wanted to be last year, even the year before that probably. Sometimes you add really good players to your lineup and we’ve done that and you might want to try and be something you’re not. We’re 60 minutes into a season and the first two questions I’ve gotten are about identity and you guys are doing the exact same thing that I’m doing, you’re comparing it to last year and that’s my whole point, it starts all over again. What do you want to be, how can we win, what should we be. We’re figuring that out right now.
The first thing that I did was I reminded our players that every year is a new year and you take on your own identity again. If you can go back to losing game seven in Edmonton, to that press conference, I said it would be hard, it starts all over again and you reinvent yourself year after year after year. The only comparable we have after three periods was last year, so now we take three periods of hockey this year and we compare it to what was there last year and we weren’t even close. As we go forward now, we’ll have to lay game two against game one because now we’re starting to get this year’s evidence. Maybe we’re going to be a loose, gambling, score five per night team and get it done that way, I don’t know, but that looked like how we wanted to play. If we feel as a group that’s where our identity has to go and we’re going to try it that way, great, but I’m not betting on it. We either reestablish who we are, or we try it a different way.
# On Gabe Vilardi
Personally, I think, and the coaching staff thinks, that he’s a step quicker. He looks a little faster, some of that’s confidence, some of its feeling good. He feels good about himself, about his game, his teammates are excited for him. There’s a lot of real positive things in his world right now and we’ve got to keep them there. – Todd McLellan
For sure, yeah. It’s great to see. He’s definitely put his work in and he’s gotten a lot better and he’s definitely faster than he was the year before. It’s been great to see and I’m looking forward to playing with him. – Alex Iafallo
I do see that. I think there was a play in the preseason when it wasn’t an icing, but the other team’s defenseman had a lot of space on him and he caught him, stripped the puck and we got a chance off of it. Even on his backchecks, he’s getting back there quickly. He’s creating a lot off the forecheck, I think he’s definitely made a big improvement over the summer. – Quinton Byfield