Kings Practice Notebook: Making major change to struggling power play

Before the Los Angeles Kings hit the ice for practice today, head coach Jim Hiller approached defenseman Brian Dumoulin.

“When’s the last time you played the power play?” Hiller asked.

“I think [2017] in Pittsburgh,” Dumoulin responded.

"When’s the next time you’re gonna play the power play?” Hiller followed.

“I don’t know,” Dumoulin said.

“Well,” Hiller said. “That’s gonna be today.”

Dumoulin, the veteran blueliner in his first season with the Kings, will run the point on the team’s second power-play unit in tomorrow night’s game against the Washington Capitals. When one of your power-play defensemen hasn’t participated in the power play in eight years and has never had more than six goals or 24 assists in a season, it might seem like a desperation move. But when a power play is struggling as much as the Kings’ has in recent weeks, you’ll try anything.

The unit currently holds a 14.1% success rate, sitting at 28th in the NHL. They have just two power-play goals in their last nine games. The Kings spent much of the season using a five-forward first unit and a second unit with two blueliners — Drew Doughty and Brandt Clarke — but Doughty’s lower-body injury complicated that setup. Now Clarke is running the top unit while Dumoulin takes on a new role.

“I mean, we’ve talked about this for a while,” Hiller said. “More than anything, the energy had to change. We kept going back to the well, and it just had to change.”

Doughty’s absence means that other defensemen have needed to step up, and Dumoulin was among the main ones to earn Hiller’s trust and favor.

“When Drew goes out, that’s 23, 24 [minutes per game], so someone’s gotta pick up the slack,” Hiller said. “[Jacob] Moverare’s picked up some, but then there’s extra to go around. [Dumoulin’s] really filled the void there for us and played well.”

Of course, getting a player up to speed on a power play he probably never expected to play on takes time, especially after eight years away from power plays of any kind. As such, Hiller kept the practice session about as simple and straightforward as he could.

“We didn’t even practice it under full pressure today,” Hiller said. “Let’s just get in our spots. Let’s move the puck around. Have a little pressure. Let’s feel good, let’s go play tomorrow. So we just don’t want to overthink that part of it right now.”

Dumoulin’s unit will debut tomorrow night when the Kings host the Capitals, their second meeting in about two weeks. It is one of several recent or upcoming instances of the Kings playing the same team twice in a short span, including two consecutive games against the Chicago Blackhawks later this week. Such occurrences are rare, but Hiller believes they carry benefits.

“It does set up a little bit like a playoff series would, where you’re focused on one team specifically,” he said. “For both teams, you can get just a little more dialed in. The players get a lot of information over a long season playing all these different teams, and you’d like to think they’re grasping everything all the time. We all know it’s probably not the case.”

“You get that same team in short periods, and I think they dig in a little bit more to exactly what’s going on, and they make their own adjustments within the game themselves.”

But while the players adjust, so does the coaching staff. As the power-play changes go, nothing is off the table to get a floundering group back on track.