Projected Lineups: Kings at Maple Leafs, Rittich Set for Season Debut
Normally, scoring seven goals in an NHL game is enough leave the arena with a win and two points in the standings. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for the Kings on Monday, although did escape with one point after falling 8-7 to the Senators in overtime. Following an entertaining, yet confusing afternoon largely defined by defensive mistakes and breakdowns, LA now has to stare down the ever dangerous and highly skilled Toronto Maple Leafs.
Coming just four games into the young 2024-25 season, early morning storylines are rather plentiful. On one hand, coach Jim Hiller’s team has yet to be beaten in regulation. He’s also witnessed quite a rollercoaster of performance levels — from being a shutdown defensive team that makes it easy on their goaltenders to a group that needs stronger commitment to their structure. No matter how you cut it, they have earned four of a possible six points thus far – which is above the NHL .500 mark most teams look for on the road.
Hiller could be looking at a trio of lineup changes for Wednesday’s game in Toronto. For starters, all signs point to David Rittich getting his first start of the season. He holds a .929 save percentage against the Leafs in seven career appearances yet hasn’t faced them since 2021. The team’s No. 2 netminder saw plenty of action during the preseason and acquitted himself nicely. Finding some rhythm to his game early in the year could pay dividends as the schedule wears along in the months ahead.
With this game marking the team’s first back-to-back situation to date, it would be fair to assume whichever gets the start in Toronto would be followed by his counterpart getting the nod on Thursday in Montreal — where the Kings will close out the Canadian portion of their road trip.
Wednesday night will be a big test for the young defensive core of LA, especially against the powerful and dangerous offense of Toronto. They have skilled forwards up and down their lineup that will put a rather inexperienced group on their heels if they are not on top of their game.
Adding to the challenge will be the absence of two key veterans on the blueline. Already missing a key piece in Drew Doughty, it now looks as though LA also will be without the services of Joel Edmunson for at least the short-term, as he returned home to SoCal on Tuesday afternoon for family reasons. Either Andreas Englund or Caleb Jones would be expected to suit up in his absence, with the latter making his Kings debut Hiller go in that direction. History would suggest Englund may be the guy to go, perhaps buoyed by the fact he scored his lone NHL goal in Toronto last Halloween.
Rounding out the trio of changes should be the return of Akil Thomas. He hasn’t seen any official action with the Kings since a 7-game tryout late last season. The 24-year-old forward began training camp as the team’s fourth line center and had been patiently waiting to draw in.
Statistically Speaking
— Now we get to something rather absurd, the Anze Kopitar situation. Casual observers will likely ask, ‘What situation, doesn’t he have six points in three games already?’ Yes, that’s true. However, we’re talking about the Toronto numbers. In 12 career games played in hockey’s capital city, the future Hall of Famer has just six assists and is a minus-9. That’s correct, no goals. It’s the last building where he hasn’t lit the lamp at least once. With tonight believed to be his second to last chance to ever do so, time is running out.
— Overall, the Kings carry a 29-39-11-2 record on the road against the Maple Leafs all-time. Over their ten most recent head-to-head matchups in Toronto, LA holds a 4-5-1 record coming into play tonight. They’ve also won two of their last three matchups in Toronto, averaging 3.00 goals-for-per-game.
— LA has secured points in each of its first three outings, marking the second straight season the Kings have opened a campaign with a road point streak – they secured points in each of their first 12 road contests to start 2023-24 (11-0-1, 23 points).
— With tonight marking the back-to-back games of the season for LA, a quick look back to last season shows the Kings went 14-7-3 in back-to-back contests in 2023-24. Even more impressive, they were an astonishing 10-1-1 in the first games played.
— In a rare occurrence, Thousand Oaks native Trevor Moore will get to play against a pair of fellow Californias, as the Leafs roster includes San Ramon native Auston Matthews and Arcadia’s Nicholas Robertson.
— Fresh on the heels of Monday’s game in Ottawa, where Kings assistant coach DJ Smith served as the head bench boss prior to arriving in LA, tonight marks another homecoming of sorts. Hiller and Smith were together in Toronto from 2015-19 as assistant coaches for the Leafs.
— With his first goal of the season on Monday, Trevor Lewis now has 99 tallies in his career and sits one shy of becoming the 21st skater, and fourth U.S-born skater, selected in the 2006 NHL Draft to reach the 100-goal mark.
Kings Projected Lineup vs. Maple Leafs
The following projection will be updated if there are any key changes during morning skate or during pregame warmups.
Laferriere – Kopitar – Kempe
Jeannot – Danault – Moore
Fiala – Byfield – Foegele
Turcotte – Thomas – Lewis
Anderson – Spence
Gavrikov – Burroughs
Englund – Clarke
Rittich (starter)
Kuemper
Likely scratches: (F) Lee (D) Edmundson, Jones
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 4:30 pm Pacific Time and will be televised locally by Bally’s Sports. Additionally, a Kings radio feed is available on the ESPN LA app (which is the new home for Kings radio this season, they’ve moved off of the iHeart platform).
More on the ongoing TV situation here.
Across the Ice
Toronto is coming off a 4-2 win over the Penguins on Saturday. Here is how they lined up for that contest:
Knies – Matthews – Marner
McMann – Holmberg – Nylander
Pacioretty – Domi – Robertson
Lorentz – Kampf – Reaves
Rielly – Tanev
Ekman Larson – McCabe
Benoit – Timmins
Stolarz
On This Day in Kings History
While not really an ‘on this day’ moment, it’s hard not to think about Kings-Leafs and not reminsese about 1993.
