{"id":464069,"date":"2026-02-20T01:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464069\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:28:10","slug":"kings-practice-notebook-post-olympic-lineup-adjustments-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464069\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings Practice Notebook: Post-Olympic lineup adjustments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although without their complete roster, the Los Angeles Kings have returned to practice as they ramp up for the post-Olympics stretch of the season.<\/p>\n

In the most notable change to the team\u2019s lineup, Quinton Byfield has shifted from center to wing, playing alongside Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore on the top line. The coaching staff hasn\u2019t yet decided how long this adjustment will last.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe season probably hasn\u2019t gone quite the way we expected for a lot of people. Q may be one of them,\u201d head coach Jim Hiller said. \u201cI think this is a fresh look for him. Allows him to do less work in [the] d-zone and to really get moving, skating on the forecheck. And, you know, that\u2019s what he does extremely well. He\u2019s a centerman. We know that. He\u2019s gonna be a centerman for us for a long time, but for now, he\u2019s gonna slot in there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just starting there with Kop and trying to see how it goes. We did that before, and there\u2019s some success,\u201d Byfield added. \u201cSo hopefully we can get this going again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew Doughty, Darcy Kuemper and Joel Armia are all still competing at the Olympics, while Adrian Kempe\u2019s participation concluded yesterday following Sweden\u2019s elimination. Of course, the biggest Kings-related storyline coming out of the competition is Kevin Fiala\u2019s leg injury<\/a>, which will keep him out at least through the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of everyone that was going, I mean, maybe him and [Doughty] were the top two, but I think no one likes representing the country, probably, more than he does,\u201d defenseman Mikey Anderson said. \u201cHe takes big pride in it, whether it\u2019s World Championships or anything. I mean, he\u2019ll drop a hat to go and do it. So, yeah, sucks for him. Obviously sucks for the team now that he\u2019s done, but yeah, felt terrible for him. Hopefully he can get back here soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Fiala drops out of the rotation, the Kings welcome a new player to the fold in star winger Artemi Panarin, who has participated in each of the last two practices after the Kings traded for him<\/a> just before the Olympic roster freeze. The team hopes that his offensive production, at more than a point per game this season, will give them a much-needed lift.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe handles the puck so good, he knows how to create space for himself,\u201d Anderson said of his new teammate. \u201cNo matter how tight you are to him, he finds a way to get a puck, maybe through you, around you, knows where guys are at all the time, but he\u2019s one of those offensive threats. If you\u2019re defending him, you know where he is all the time. So yeah, we\u2019re happy to have a guy like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The players returning from the Olympics will have less time to integrate back into the lineup, but that\u2019s hardly a concern.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re at the Olympics, they\u2019re elite players in their roles,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cThey\u2019ve had a long track record. So those players will find their spots. We\u2019re holding spots for them, let\u2019s put it that way. Nobody\u2019s taking their roles away from them during this week\u2019s practice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although without their complete roster, the Los Angeles Kings have returned to practice as they ramp up for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5126],"tags":[15232,366,367,3039,368,883,5,2098,973,1270,186,1760,240,5303,793,145,5304,5302,6433,40,4,2602,1295,1861,5695],"class_list":["post-464069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-kings","tag-2026-olympics","tag-adrian-kempe","tag-anze-kopitar","tag-artemi-panarin","tag-darcy-kuemper","tag-drew-doughty","tag-hockey","tag-jim-hiller","tag-joel-armia","tag-kevin-fiala","tag-kings","tag-la","tag-la-kings","tag-lakings","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleskings","tag-mikey-anderson","tag-news","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-quinton-byfield","tag-trevor-moore","tag-tst-los-angeles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116100366933402558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}