Injury-tested Kings make lineup adjustments

A new dynamic will be established when the injury-tested Los Angeles Kings take the ice early Saturday afternoon against the Montreal Canadiens (12:30 FOX Sports West) as Mike Richards, Willie Mitchell and Trent Hunter will be out of the lineup with Dustin Penner, Davis Drewiske and Brad Richardson stepping in. Richards, beset by an upper-body injury being reported as a concussion sustained on a high hit by Florida's Sean Bergenheim that did not warrant any supplemental discipline, was placed on injured reserve Friday, while there are apparently no plans yet to move Mitchell to injured reserve after suffering a lower body injury on the game's first shift. "It's going to be a few games," Terry Murray said when asked about Richards' and Mitchell's status. This moves Dustin Brown back to the right side, opposite Simon Gagne, on a line centered by Anze Kopitar, while Dustin Penner moves to second line, left-wing, opposite Justin Williams, on a line centered by Jarret Stoll after being activated from injured reserve. Penner had missed nine games with a hand injury, a span in which the team posted a 6-2-1 record, though he had been playing better hockey at the time he went down. "Penner's ready to go, yes. I'm certain of that, as far as health-wise and skating, he's in the best condition that he's been since he's been an LA King," Murray said. "He's been through three weeks of hard work, and he has poured a lot into it, skating very well, and that's the demands that I've put on him." In Mitchell's absence, Davis Drewiske will suit up for the second time this season on Saturday and will see time alongside Matt Greene. Looking to keep it simple and fill in a role as a responsible defenseman, Drewiske described the focus he sustained during the game nights he spent upstairs in the press box. "I think the real battle is mentally staying connected to the game and everything that's going on when you've been out for a while," he said. "You definitely try to watch the game pretty intently, like, intense, and focus on what guys are doing, where the mistakes are, and that's a good way to keep yourself in touch with what's going on." Murray agreed that no supplemental discipline was warranted on Bergenheim's hit on Richards and commended his players for sticking up for a teammate. "The support for each other when Richards got hit, I thought that was the way teams are supposed to respond," Murray said. "They're supposed to be there for a teammate in a tough situation, and that was pretty gritty determination. I thought right away their response was correct." GM Dean Lombardi, in a chat with Rich Hammond, was disappointed by the penalties assessed after Bergenheim's hit that forced the Kings to have to kill off a four-minute power play after they showed unity in sticking up for a teammate. "When that scenario ends up in a four-minute power play, I think that's a real problem," Lombardi said to LA Kings Insider. "That's part of the culture of our sport, everything we try to instill, and to have to be subjected to a four-minute penalty kill on that basis, I really struggle with that. And that's a bigger issue, as to the culture of our game, and not specifically.'' Trent Hunter will be replaced by Brad Richardson, who will skate opposite Kevin Westgarth on a line centered by Andrei Loktionov. Jonathan Bernier is expected to start in net against his hometown Montreal Canadiens. Former Manchester Monarchs Head Coach Bruce Boudreau took over in Anaheim as the club's Head Coach after Randy Carlyle was fired by the club Wednesday night. A 20-year old Dustin Brown played for Boudreau in Manchester during the lockout year of 2004-05, recording 29 goals and 74 points in 75 games for a team that won 51 of 80 but fell in six games in the first round of the playoffs to the Providence Bruins. "He was a player's coach. You wanted to play for him," Brown said of Boudreau. "We had a good team with the lockout that year, and we got off to like a ridiculous start. I think we were 25-1 to start the year. Unfortunately, we got beat in six games in the first round, but it was a good learning experience for me, and a chance for me to play a lot of minutes at a pro level." "He's a pretty positive guy, for the most part. Like I said, he's one of those coaches that you want to play for, at least that year for me. I only played one year for him. He's pretty positive and tries to stay upbeat." Along with George Parros, Dave Steckel and Mathieu Garon, one of Brown's teammates in Manchester that year was Michael Cammalleri, who finished second in the league with 109 points (46-63-109) in 79 games. Cammalleri will be part of a Montreal Canadiens squad that enters STAPLES Center on Saturday looking for their first win on a three-game California road trip in which they fell 4-1 in Anaheim on Wednesday and were unable to hold three one-goal leads in a 4-3 shootout loss to San Jose on Thursday. Cammalleri, 29, recorded 205 points in 283 games over parts of five seasons with Los Angeles from 2002-08 but has seen his production drop in each of the last two seasons. With 13 points (6-7-13) in 21 games for Montreal thus far, he is a touch off his career averages but still presents a good challenge for the Kings, who will be prepared to see plenty of him in the lineup with Max Pacioretty serving the final game of his three-game suspension for a high hit on Pittsburgh's Kris Letang last weekend. "He's a good shooter, so you just have to be aware of where he is on the ice," Brown said of Cammalleri. "With a guy like Cammy, it's about limiting his grade-A scoring chances. You give him two or three in a game, he's going to find a way to score a goal. You've just got to make him really grind it out and work for his chances, and like I said, you can't give him a grade-A scoring chance. If he's going to score a goal, it's going to have to be because he beat you one-on-one or makes a hard play." Before preparing to watch video of the Canadiens Friday afternoon, Murray acknowledged the challenge the Kings will face against a Montreal squad that has proven difficult to play against for Los Angeles. The Kings are 27-87-20 all time against their 1993 Stanley Cup Finals dance partners and haven't won since March 8, 2003, a game in which Jamie Storr stopped 27 of 28 while Eric Belanger and Ryan Flinn provided the goals. "There's a great history with that organization," Murray said. "They're always going to come and compete real hard, play real hard. We'll be ready for that, and we need to be better at our game at the same time."