After the Los Angeles Kings played the type of game D.J. Smith would like to see them play regularly but still lost, the new head coach will take another aim at earning his first victory when the New York Islanders visit on Thursday.
Smith had a difficult matchup in his first game since taking over for Jim Hiller, who was fired on Sunday after a woeful start to the post-Olympic break.
The Kings faced off against the visiting Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday and looked much better in the 4-2 loss versus the No. 1 team in the NHL.
Smith said he liked the way the Kings forechecked, battled to regain possession of the puck, used their physicality along the boards, and didn’t sit back and absorb the Avalanche in the middle of the ice.
“You need the points for sure, but at this point, you can’t fault the effort,” Smith said. “We’re going to need that every game.”
The Kings received some good news on the injury/illness/personal front during practice on Wednesday.
Expected to return against the Islanders are defensemen Drew Doughty and Jacob Moverare, forward Trevor Moore and goalie Darcy Kuemper.
Doughty has missed the past two games with a lower-body injury. Moore and Kuemper missed the last game with illnesses and Moverare for the birth of his son, Milan.
Los Angeles will be without forward Quinton Byfield, who will miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury.
Also of note, Kings captain Anze Kopitar will play in his 1,500th NHL regular-season game. Now 38, Kopitar has played only for the Kings, who selected him with the No. 11 overall pick of the 2005 NHL Draft.
Only three active players have appeared in more games.
Smith said he would like to see Kopitar get a chance to experience the playoffs for the 11th time in his 20 NHL seasons, but it’s going to take a team effort.
The Kings enter the game five points behind the Seattle Kraken for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
“If we want to play at the pace that I expect them to play at, to forecheck and to hit, everyone’s going to have to take a little bit shorter shifts, everyone’s going to have to play harder while they’re on the ice,” Smith said. “We’re going to need all four lines. One guy might be in one night, one guy might be out, but I wouldn’t count us out.”
The Islanders are coming off a 5-1 setback at the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night in the opener of the four-game road trip.
The loss ended a season-high five-game winning streak.
“We had 40-something shots on net,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “Maybe we could have done a little bit better job getting in front of those, taking the goalie’s eyes away from the puck and that would have helped, but overall they played a good game and there are things we could have done a little bit better early on.”
Ilya Sorokin is expected to start in goal against Los Angeles after David Rittich made 21 saves versus the Ducks.
Sorokin went 4-0-0 in February but he’s just 1-5-0 in six career games against the Kings with a .913 save percentage and 2.73 goals-against average.
The Kings and Islanders will meet again on March 13 in New York.
–Field Level Media
