The injuries keep piling up for the Los Angeles Kings, as Adrian Kempe flew back to Los Angeles to undergo scanning for the injury he sustained Monday night.
This puts the Kings, who are already dealing with some key injuries, in a bind for the rest of this trip.
They have to find a top-line right wing for Tuesday against the Calgary Flames at minimum, and potentially for the foreseeable future.
Kevin Fiala feels like an obvious replacement there, but the Kings haven't liked putting Fiala with Anze Kopitar in the past.
Moving Quinton Byfield back to the first line is also an option, but that dampens the Pierre-Luc Dubois line significantly.
It's going to be tough for a team that's struggling for offense right now to survive without their leading scorer.
They need their top players who are healthy to step up massively now. Dubois, Fiala, Kopitar, Byfield, etc now have a heavy burden on their shoulders.
There's also the wild card option of giving someone like Arthur Kaliyev a shot higher in the lineup in the hopes that he can spark something in a bigger role.
Tonight's going to be a big game for the Kings, both in the standings and as an indicator of how this team will handle all the injuries.
One game shouldn't change their plans, but they need to keep a close eye on how this roster, and particularly the forward group, performs.
A common thought among media and fans is that this roster is too talented to miss the playoffs. Now without Mikey Anderson, Kempe and Viktor Arvidsson, you have to begin questioning if the talent is truly there.
Is this team good enough without those three players to seriously compete for a playoff spot? We'll find out soon.
With no morning skate to go off, we'll have to do some guesswork projecting tonight's lines.
Projected Los Angeles Kings Lines:
Forwards:
Alex Laferriere - Anze Kopitar - Quinton Byfield
Trevor Moore - Phil Danault - Kevin Fiala
Jaret Anderson-Dolan - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Arthur Kaliyev
Alex Turcotte - Blake Lizotte - Trevor Lewis
Defense:
Vladislav Gavrikov - Drew Doughty
Jacob Moverare - Matt Roy
Andreas Englund - Jordan Spence
Goalies:
Cam Talbot
David Rittich
Projected Calgary Flames Lines:
Forwards:
Jonathan Huberdeau-Yegor Sharangovich-Dryden Hunt
Connor Zary-Nazem Kadri-Martin Pospisil
Andrew Mangiapane-Mikael Backlund-Blake Coleman
Jacob Pelletier-Kevin Rooney-Walker Duehr
Defence:
MacKenzie Weegar-Rasmus Andersson
Noah Hanifin-Chris Tanev
Oliver Kylington-Brayden Pachal
Goalies:
Jacob Markstrom
Dan Vladar