What to watch in tonight’s Coyotes preseason game against the Los Angeles Kings

It may seem too soon to throw NHL players into preseason games. The Coyotes have only had four days on the ice at training camp, plus today’s morning skate, but historically, that has been the approach that the league has taken. 

The Coyotes will open a slate of six preseason games against the Los Angeles Kings at Gila River Arena at 7 p.m. on Monday. The roster is already set. The Coyotes will reveal it after today’s morning skate. I’ll update the story when they do.

“I cannot wait. It will be fun,” coach André Tourigny said. “You’re always curious to see your team in an actual game. You can practice as much as you want. At some point, you need the exam. You need to figure out where you are at, knowing full well it’s not an NHL game yet, but that’s the best we can do right now.

“We have six games to be ready for the start of the season. We cannot waste a day. We cannot waste a day in practice. Same thing for games. I am excited to see our young players play, to see our veterans, where they are at, and to see where we are in our structure, in our fundamentals, in our systems and all of it. It’s another step in the right direction.”

It is far too soon to read into line combinations or defense pairs, but Tourigny did reveal a few things that are fairly standard approaches for coaches in the preseason:

Some veterans will play less, but most will play four games. The coaches began by figuring out which veterans would play in each game and then filling out the roster with other players around them.

Tourigny wants to make sure that he gives the rookies who impressed at development camp and in the Rookie Faceoff an opportunity to show what they can do in a game atmosphere.

Tonight’s starting goalie will play the first two periods and the backup will play the third period to avoid overtaxing the goalies so early in the process.

“I don’t expect us to be as good as we are (in the season opener Oct. 14 at Columbus), but I expect us to do good stuff off what we practiced,” Tourigny said. “I expect our players to play their game, show us what they’ve got and see our structure progress. 

“In any circumstance, we will learn about ourselves. If we have a great game, that’s good, we’ll be positive, we’ll build on it, we’ll do some video. If we have a bad day, we’ll learn about how we react, why we had a bad day, who had a bad day and what led to that. We are so young in our journey; just starting. We’re learning about each other every day.”

The line combinations and defense pairs that Tourigny and his staff employ in the first few games should not be construed as final decisions. The staff is still experimenting. It has been difficult to read exactly what the staff is thinking because the Coyotes have been split into two separate groups at camp, but here are some early observations from watching camp practice, as well as a couple of insights from Tourigny.

The coach emphasized that Jay Beagle will play center this season. That clears up a significant question for the Coyotes about center depth. With Nick Schmaltz and Johan Larsson also slotted into that depth chart, the Coyotes know who three of their four centers will be. The other spot is up for grabs between Barrett Hayton, Travis Boyd and perhaps Ryan Dzingel.

Jakob Chychrun has been skating in a separate group from right-handed defensemen Anton Strålman, but when I asked Tourigny who he thought was most likely to be Chychrun’s defense partner when the season starts, he said the staff was leaning toward Strålman, adding that it’s very early in the process. 

As I noted in a piece before camp began, the pairing looks logical because Strålman is another savvy, steady veteran in the Alex Goligoski mold who can protect Chychrun’s up-ice forays, but you never know if it will work until the pair plays together. Niklas Hjalmarsson was acquired from Chicago to pair with Oliver Ekman-Larsson and that pairing never clicked.

Most coaches like to think of forward groups in pairs, and then fill in the third guy on the line. That said, these are some of the line combinations that I saw in camp practice on Sunday

Barrett Hayton was centering Lawson Crouse on the left wing and Clayton Keller on the right side, his off wing.

Beagle was centering Dimitrij Jaškin. Nick Schmaltz was centering Loui Eriksson, and Boyd was between Antoine Roussel and Christian Fischer. 

Tonight’s game will be broadcast on 98.7 FM with Bob Heethuis and Luke Lapinski on the call. The game will not be televised or streamed.

(Photo at top courtesy of Arizona Coyotes)

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