Kings vs Sabres Game 55: Lines, Notes & How to Watch

Todd McLellan often refers to the 6-0 loss in Buffalo as a turning point for the Los Angeles Kings season. Tonight, they take on the Buffalo Sabres in their first meeting since that night.

Puck drops at 7:30 PM.

Carl Grundstrom returned to the ice in a red non-contact jersey. No official timeline was given but he's close to being fully healthy.

As reported on Sunday, Gabe Vilardi has returned to practice in a normal grey jersey, but won't be ready to play against the Sabres. 

Brendan Lemieux took extra ice time after practice with Vilardi and Grundstrom, indicating he'll be a healthy scratch.

Two players the Kings will have to pay special attention to are Tage Thomspon and Rasmus Dahlin. McLellan addressed those two and how you try to deal with them.

On Dahlin:

We have to be very aware of where he is, to me, we have a guy playing in our conference that plays a little like that in (Erik) Karlsson. Where he's okay playing almost as a forward, he'll wander around in the offensive zone. And then he has real good legs to get back, so he's a defenseman by title and a rover by play. And he does both of them really well. 

On Thompson:

He's certainly in the last calendar year, he's brought a lot of attention to himself, and deservingly so he's an outstanding player. And what happens with some of those star players is, nobody really knows their tendency's until they become star players. I think people are zeroing in on him now, but not stopping him. And he does so many good things on the ice. His hockey sense and his awareness for his size, his shot, fun player to watch. I like turning on the TV and watching him. And a tough player to play against, we'll have our hands full, we'll have to figure out a way to slow him down a little bit.

Los Angeles Kings Projected Lines:

Quinton Byfield-Anze Kopitar-Adrian Kempe

Trevor Moore-Phil Danault-Viktor Arvidsson

Kevin Fiala-Blake Lizotte-Alex Iafallo

Jaret Anderson-Dolan-Rasmus Kupari-Arthur Kaliyev

Defense:

Mikey Anderson-Drew Doughty

Sean Durzi-Matt Roy 

Alex Edler-Sean Walker

Goalies:

Pheonix Copley

Jonathan Quick

Expected Buffalo Sabres Lines:

Jeff Skinner-Dylan Cozens-Alex Tuch

Casey Mittelstadt-Tage Thompson-Kyle Okposo

Rasmus Asplund-Tyson Jost-Victor Olofsson

Zegmus Girgensons-Peyton Krebs-Jack Quinn

Defense:

Mattias Samuelsson-Rasmus Dahlin

Owen Power-Henri Jokiharju

Jacob Bryson-Ilya Lyubishkin

Goalies:

Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen

Eric Comrie

Special Teams:

Los Angeles Kings Power Play: 45 for 184, 24.46%, 7th in NHL

Los Angeles Kings Penalty Kill: 46 for 183, 74.86%, 27th in NHL

Buffalo Sabres Power Play: 45 for 177, 25.42%, 5th in NHL

Buffalo Sabres Penalty Kill: 41 for 153, 73.20%, 29th in NHL

Los Angeles Kings Pregame Notes:

• The Kings have won eight of their last 11 meetings against the Sabres at Crypto.com Arena, dating back to Dec. 6, 2007 (8-3-0) 
• With Saturday’s win over Pittsburgh, the Kings improved their record to 18-2-1 when leading after two periods of play this season.
• With a point tonight, Jaret Anderson-Dolan can extend his point streak (2-1=3) to a career-long four games.
• Rasmus Kupari recorded his second multi-point outing (0-2=2) of his NHL career on Saturday. 
• Saturday night’s game marked the fourth day since 2000-01 to feature two players each score four goals (Adrian Kempe & Artemi Panarin). The others: Nov. 4, 2021 (Patrice Bergeron & Brock Nelson), Nov. 2, 2005 (Daniel Alfredsson & Martin Havlat) and Oct. 28, 2000 (Randy McKay & John Madden).

How to Watch:

TV: Bally Sports West, ESPN+; Radio: iHeartRadio