2/29 Preview – “Urgency For Points” + Replacing Kempe’s Contributions, Turcotte

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The Kings are still in search of their first victory in Western Canada, as they conclude a three-game trip tonight against the Vancouver Canucks.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Tonight marks the first matchup of the season between these two clubs. Forwards Arthur Kaliyev and Blake Lizotte led the Kings a season ago with four points apiece (2-2-4) versus Vancouver. Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov added two points in the final two months of last season, after he was acquired at the trade deadline.

KINGS VITALS: The Kings returned to the ice with a full-team morning skate today in Vancouver.

Look for the Kings to go back to goaltender Cam Talbot again tonight, his second consecutive start here on this trip. Talbot has faced the Canucks 20 times throughout his NHL career, with a lifetime record of 11-3-4, alongside a .928 save percentage and a 2.04 goals-against average.

Line rushes from today’s morning skate shown below –

Turcotte – Kopitar – Byfield
Moore – Danault – Fiala
Laferriere – Dubois – Anderson-Dolan
Lewis – Lizotte – Kaliyev

Moverare – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence
Clarke

Talbot
Rittich

For tonight, the Kings are still without forward Adrian Kempe, who departed the team to return to Los Angeles with an upper-body injury. No further update today regarding Kempe’s status, but he is not an option tonight.

The Kings have just one extra skater on the roster from Tuesday’s lineup in Calgary – defenseman Brandt Clarke. Clarke worked into power-play rushes today, so we could potentially see an 11/7 look tonight, though we won’t know for sure until tonight’s game.

CANUCKS VITALS: Vancouver has dropped five of its last six games entering tonight’s action, most recently a 4-3 overtime defeat to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Vancouver is expected to start goaltender Thatcher Demko this evening against the Kings. Tonight would mark Demko’s sixth career start versus Los Angeles, bringing with him a 4-1-0 record, a .953 save percentage and a 1.56 goals-against average.

Per Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet, here’s how the Canucks lined up last time out versus Pittsburgh –

Warmup #Canucks lines vs. @penguins

Höglander. Pettersson. Mikheyev.
Suter. Miller. Boeser.
Bains. Lindholm. Garland.
PDG. Blueger. Lafferty.

Hughes. Hronek.
Cole. Myers.
Zadorov. Juulsen.

????#DemkoTime ????

7pm on @Sportsnet650 https://t.co/KAgpi3gWwj#HockeyTalks pic.twitter.com/qZg7KLrtT8

— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) February 28, 2024

Entering today, no team in the NHL has scored more goals this season than Vancouver (221) and no team has more regulation wins (33). Forward Elias Lindholm, acquired from Calgary prior to the…