Kings Game Day Preview: Arvidsson Injury Update & Kings Down a Player

Opening night is finally here! The Los Angeles Kings open up their season Wednesday night at home against the Colorado Avalanche.

Opening night is finally here! The Los Angeles Kings open up their season Wednesday night at home against the Colorado Avalanche.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the Kings will be playing a player short today, rolling 11 forwards and six defensemen.

After what was originally designated as an "adjustment" from Todd McLellan became a day-to-day injury on Tuesday and is now more than day-to-day for Viktor Arvidsson.

It's still being labeled as a lower-body injury sustained at practice on Monday.

"Arvy will not play tonight," said McLellan. "He'll be a little longer than day-to-day."

McLellan then stated he isn't sure if Arvidsson will be an LTIR candidate yet.

Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, however, the Kings are up against the cap and can only carry 21 players. Add on Arthur Kaliyev's suspension, which he will serve on Wednesday, and the Kings are now short one player.

"Arty will be called up to serve the suspension," said McLellan. "Our team will play one player short. But that's okay. We have quality people that are ready to go and the one thing I know, at this time of the year, people are begging for ice time. So, there it is it's right in front of you so do something with it."

Playing down a player is not ideal, but McLellan doesn't seem too worried about it.

"The coaching staff, we're excited to see how we're going to respond tonight," said McLellan. "Not based on how many players we're dressing or who's in the lineup, but what are we going to bring to the ice surface? Are we going to play on our toes? Are we going to get after a really good team? Or are we going to sit back and see what happens? That's what's exciting about tonight. And dealing with adversity, whatever it might be, we haven't even played a game yet. I don't know if we're in adversity or not, but the excitement is, we get to play."

The one benefit of playing down a skater on Wednesday is being able to utilize an emergency call up. Assuming Arvidsson won't be healthy for Saturday's game against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Kings can call-up one player without it counting against their cap.

However, that player has to be making less than $850K, meaning Alex Turcotte can't play. I'm assuming Jaret Anderson-Dolan will draw in Saturday if the Kings use that option.

It was a light morning skate but we have a good sense of what the lines will be.

Forwards:

Quinton Byfield - Anze Kopitar - Adrian Kempe

Kevin Fiala - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Alex Laferriere

Trevor Moore - Phil Danault - Carl Grundstrom

Trevor Lewis - Blake Lizotte

Defense:

Mikey Anderson - Drew Doughty

Vladislav Gavrikov - Matt Roy

Tobias Bjornfot - Andreas Englund 

Goalies:

Cam Talbot

Pheonix Copley

Forwards:

Jonathan Drouin - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Artturi Lehkonen - Ryan Johansen - Valeri Nichuskin

Miles Wood - Ross Colton - Tomas Tatar

Andrew Cogliano - Fredrik Olofsson - Logan O'Connor

Defense:

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Bowen Byram - Josh Manson

Samuel Girard - Erik Johnson

Goalies:

Alexander Georgiev

Justus Annunen