TODAY’S MATCHUP: The Kings have three more games left before the holiday break as the road trip continues tonight in the City of Brotherly Love.

HEAD TO HEAD: The Kings and Flyers split the 2023-24 season, with each team winning on the road, including a 5-0 win in Los Angeles here in Philadelphia.

Forward Quinton Byfield led the way with four points against the Flyers last season, including a three-assist game in this building last November. Striker Adrian Kempe scored a goal in both games while defender Vladislav Gavrikov provided an assist in both games.

KINGS VITALS: The visitors held a morning run with the entire team today after keeping most of the group off the ice yesterday.

Goaltender Darcy Kuemper was the first off the ice after the morning skate today, making him the Kings’ expected starting goaltender tonight, which would be his fourth start in five games on this trip. Kuemper has a career record of 3-4-1 against the Flyers, with a save percentage of .898 and a goals-against average of 3.16.

There is no reason to believe that the 11/7 tournament will not continue today as the Kings won in convincing fashion in this lineup. An expected lineup, see below –

Turcotte – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Jeannot
Fiala – Danault – Laferrière
Helenius-Thomas

Anderson-Gavrikov
Edmundson-Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Burroughs

Kümper
Rittich

Forward Trevor Moore remains out of the squad due to an upper body injury and will not play against the Flyers today.

Based on today’s game, I would expect the same lineup for the Kings in Philadelphia tonight, with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. The Kings have forward Andre Lee and defenseman Andreas Englund available should they make any changes to the lineup. However, yesterday’s lack of training was intended to keep the forwards playing more minutes fresh until the end of the trip. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 12/6 in Nashville or Washington – or both – but I’m expecting 11/7 tonight.

FLYER VITALS: Philadelphia has had an up and down season so far, with two and three game streaks, both wins and losses, in their last 10 games, with a record of 5-4-1.

According to Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer, here’s how the Flyers lined up last night in Detroit –

#Flyer Lines vs. DET 🐙

Farabee Couturier Konecny
Tippett-Frost-Michkov
Foerster-Cates-Brink
Laughton-Poehling-Hathaway

York-Sanheim
Zamula Ristolainen
Seeler-Drysdale

Ersson pic.twitter.com/zoWSg5pNtL

— Jackie Spiegel (@jackiespiegel93) December 18, 2024

The Kings will face forward Matvei Michkov for the first time in the NHL, with the rookie forward playing his first season in the league. Michkov leads all rookies in goals (11) and points (27) this season, surpassing only Montreal’s Lane Hutson in assists.

Plot of the Day – Phil(s Line)adelphia
At the start of the season, Kevin Fiala, Phillip Danault and Alex Laferriere were all on different lines. Although Fiala and Danault had played together at times in the past, this was typically with Trevor Moore as a third member, with Moore and Danault being the main pairing and Fiala joining as a player.

For now, however, it’s a line that works really effectively, even if it’s not the line in the original draft.

“I think we played really well together, especially in the last few games here,” Fiala said. “We’re not doing it consistently at the moment, that’s what we’re aiming for, but we’re not going to give up, we’re going to keep going and hopefully score a goal tonight.”

Since Jim Hiller reached out to these three players from the same unit, the results have been quite promising. I don’t know exactly when that point was. The first time it was written down during line rushes was on November 29th in Anaheim, eight games ago. To use ten games as a round count, this line has controlled more than 69 percent of shot attempts when these three have been on the ice together. Five goals for, only two against.

Although the performance didn’t quite match what they put in, these three players controlled more than 70 percent of the dangerous chances. It’s only a matter of time before these three players turn those looks into goals.

The Pittsburgh game was perhaps the best of all. On a night where the Kings overall were underwhelmed with their play, the Danault line was a driving factor, with 18 shot attempts compared to just three attempts against and a 9-0 advantage in scoring chances. It was a really strong performance that helped give the Kings some semblance of possession on an otherwise challenging night.

“Our most dangerous line by far,” said Hiller. “You want them to score but they did the right things and gave us a chance. You’re always looking for a line and the other night (in New York) it was the 55 line, I thought. Normally a line will try to push you, not everyone can be there every night and they were definitely our most dangerous.”

It wasn’t a perfect evening without someone hitting the net.

With the score at 2-1, this line had a couple of chances to make it 3-1, perhaps none greater than a sequence in which both Danault and Fiala had an attempt that ended up going through the goal area and out of the goal went, didn’t manage everything on the other side. You can point to the moments and opportunities that weren’t taken and everyone would agree. However, in the long run the numbers usually even out.

If these guys continue to play together, with Fiala’s play-making ability, Danault’s goal-area ability and Laferrière’s emerging goal-scoring ability, one would expect the balance to change, assuming they continue to play the way they have been.

“I think we’re definitely building a lot of chemistry there,” Laferriere said. “Any time you get a chance, it’s good. The puck isn’t going in, but we’re in the O-zone and we’re getting these chances, so it’s going to go in at some point.”

3 to watch out for –
– The Kings were originally scheduled to practice in Philadelphia yesterday.

After the Pittsburgh game was over, Jim Hiller called an audible warning and chose only a handful of players to skate, with a total of five skaters on the ice with goaltender David Rittich.

Against the Penguins, the Kings were limited to three lines for most of the evening, with the fourth line not seeing as much time as in previous games. Expect that to change tonight, according to Hiller, who said it had more to do with the flow of the game, playing against Crosby and Malkin, and not how Samuel Helenius and Akil Thomas specifically played. Expect more balance here tonight.

“We get to a 3-in-4 ratio very quickly here with a lot of wiggle room and I probably played a few more forwards than I wanted to (in Pittsburgh),” Hiller said. “Killer and Sammy didn’t play much, more on my decision, not the way they played, just the rotation with Crosby and Malkin they’ll get more ice time (tonight).”

So the Kings hosted a full-team ice skate today after most players didn’t touch the ice yesterday. As you begin a 3-in-4 journey here tonight, energy is important.

Hiller added that he talks to those affected to gauge their energy levels and get a sense of how everyone is feeling. Therefore, he noted that they could move to the 12/6 approach at the end of the trip, but for tonight it sounds like they will scale it back to 11/7.

The proof will be tonight against the Flyers.

– Four members of the current LA Kings were drafted in this building – Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe, Andreas Englund and Warren Foegele. All are part of the 2014 NHL Draft class and all attended the event here in Philadelphia.

It’s pretty rare to see four guys who were drafted by four different teams in the same draft all now playing as teammates. But that’s what we have.

Kempe was the only one of those four players drafted by the Kings, the last pick in the first round in 2014 after the Kings won the Stanley Cup. For Fiala, he was the highest-selected player in the group by the Nashville Predators, going 11th overall. It’s been a while, more than 10 years now, but it’s still a special day for Fiala and the others too.

“It’s actually pretty cool. I talked to my parents yesterday, they were there too and they said, ‘Oh, do you remember the draft there?'” Fiala said. “It’s been 10 years, time flies, but it’s still a special place for me, I mean, this is where it all started. I’m looking forward to playing here.”

– On the Fiala front, he played his 600th career NHL game on Tuesday, becoming the 11th player in his draft class to reach the milestone.

“It’s a lot of fun to reach 600 games,” he said. “If you had asked me as a little boy, I would have signed up for it straight away, I would never have believed it. I’m definitely proud of myself, very happy.”

Fiala ranks eighth in his draft class in goals, assists and points, with 446 points to his name. He is 14 goals shy of 200 and could approach 500 points by the end of the 2024-25 season with a strong finish to the season.

Do this 💯💯💯💯💯💯 for Kev! @Yaamava | #MilestoneMoment pic.twitter.com/YWNXLpRzwF

– LA Kings (@LAKings) December 18, 2024

Kings at Flyers, tonight at the Wells Fargo Center. In this regard, the national broadcast on ESPN+, i.e. streaming only for this program, should be blackout-free in all markets.