Practice 12-19 – Good To Be Back! Injury Updates, Penalty Kill Timing, Connors To Team USA

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

Practice Day, Insiders! And it’s good to be back. A longer skate today for the Kings for sure, as the team took back to the ice at Toyota Sports Performance Center in Los Angeles. As noted this morning, the Kings are embarking on a stretch of time with 11 home games from the next 14 total games and the groups seems to have recovered from their recent, six-game trip. An important day off yesterday and an important skate here this morning, as the group got back on the ice together and had the opportunity to work on several areas of the game they’re looking for.

• Rasmus Kupari
• Jordan Spence
• Brendan Lemieux
• Phillip Danault
• Sean Durzi
• Mikey Anderson
• Kenny Connors

• Todd McLellan
• Mark Yannetti

# Todd McLellan

I thought we were a little ragged to start with, I thought there was some decent energy, there wasn’t a shortage of jump or pop, but the polish wasn’t real good early and sometimes that happens after an off day, but we got to work on some things that we needed to work on. It’s nothing new, it’s just refreshing, reminders, execution in certain situations, things we needed to address. We could use more of it, but we take what we can get.

[Brendan Lemieux]’s in a red jersey, I thought he would be in a different color jersey by now but he’s in a red one, so that tells us that he’s not ready yet.

Our number isn’t getting better, because we give up goals, but that’s okay. The important thing about our penalty kill is that two nights in a row, against pretty good power plays late in the game or in overtime, it got the job done. So, the timing of penalty kill or powerplay is important.

# Phillip Danault

We had one stretch that one stretch where we played [four] games in a row at home, but that’s been it. That was the tough part of the schedule but it’s good for sure to have a routine here, to get all together. It’s good to be back home.

We did kill those good ones. Definitely good things to build on. Obviously, you don’t want to take six penalties and obviously the OT penalties, it’s hard when they get a breakaway and you have to do some stuff, but yeah, definitely big kills. It’s been crucial these last two games.

# Sean Durzi

It’s nice to kind of get a day just to practice, we were working hard out there, it feels good. It feels good just getting reps and things like that.

It’s nice to get two days in between games, which is awesome. With the road trip and coming back, playing the next day, that’s a lot of games and that’s a lot of travel. To keep your body in good shape, your mindset right, your health and nutrition, all that was pretty tough on that stretch.

Momentum is probably the biggest part. Obviously you want to score on the power play and you want to keep the puck out on the penalty kill, but if you kill a penalty at the right time, you have the whole bench up on their feet on every clear, guys are sacrificing, that’s almost better than scoring a goal. You see the guys rallying around that momentum, that passion behind doing it for each other, doing it for the team. That’s that’s kind of the biggest part, building momentum.

# Rasmus Kupari

There are always things that we need to work on and focus on, these kind of days are good for that in a busy schedule. I like to practice. I don’t play as much every game, so I need the extra work and keep my confidence up, keep my standards up, so that’s good for me personally.

# Mikey Anderson

Going back to whenever we’ve been good, it’s making sure that we get clears and trying to put on more pressure if we have an opportunity to go after a loose puck or off a rebound. Those are the two areas. Making sure we’re bearing down when we have the chance to get it out and making sure we’re quick to pressure when we have the chance.

The momentum can come into it, especially when you’re taking penalties. In the Boston game, we’re tied at the end of the game and took a penalty with 30 seconds left. When you go through the kill, all of a sudden you get a kill, you don’t give up a lot of Grade-A looks and you take the momentum away from the other team. I think momentum plays a big part in that and that’s part of what special teams does.

# Mark Yannetti

[Kenny Connors] played heavy this past year and his compete level really showed through. Most young players don’t do well defensively in leagues like the USHL. Connors showed a pretty good defensive game. That said, you need to do more than just that to get drafted, there needed to be more offensive production and that’s why we didn’t take him last year. Our scouts went into this year with [Connors] as a guy to watch because we liked some of the things about him……we felt that a lot of the offensive improvement was made from specific skillsets and learning the game.