I’m sure you are correct and it had nothing to do with his response to Laf outplaying him and keeping him out of the top 9.
That's
not what happened.
To start the preseason the line was 22-80-34.
Kaliyev got suspended after the Oct. 3rd preseason game against the Ducks.
In that game he played 10:10 at even strength with Fiala and Dubois.
In the last preseason game before the season started the team dressed 11 forwards and 7 defensemen and the lines were essentially
Byfield - Kopitar - Kempe
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Laferriere was not in the lineup.
After Arvidsson got placed on LTIR to start the season and Kaliyev was suspended for the first two games of the season Laferriere replaced Kaliyev on the 22-80 line for two games.
As soon as Kaliyev served his suspension he joined Danault and Moore while Laferriere remained on the second line.
Kaliyev played with Moore and Danault from Game 3 to Game 13.
In Game 14 v the Flyers Kaliyev was moved to a line with Laferriere and Dubois.
Fiala was moved to the line with Danault and Moore.
Fiala would go on to play almost 600 minutes with Danault and Moore. It was the second most common line combo the Kings used last season behind Byfield-Kopitar-Moore.
You can go back and find quotes from McLellan and Fiala et al about why the 80/22 pair was split up.
The second game on the Dubois line for Kaliyev was the game Laferriere got healthy scratched and they had JAD on the line with 80 and 34.
A few games later they bumped Grundstrom up to the Dubois Laferriere line because Grundstrom had been off to a hot start.
Kaliyev found himself on a line with JAD and Trevor Lewis.
That was game 18 I believe. Kaliyev had played in 16 of them.
Up to that point
Kaliyev had 3 goals, 8 assits and was +5 in 15 games
Laferriere had 2 goals, 2 assists and was +1 in 16 games
Grundstrom had 6 goals, 1 assist and was +6 in 17 games
Kaliyev was playing more minutes a game than either of them.
The two most common lines that Kaliyev appeared on were
129.8 minutes (5th most frequently used) 78-80-34
122 minutes (6th most frequently used) 12-24-34
he played 49 minutes with lizotte and lewis
I have my theories about what happened... him getting "outplayed" from the "Top 9" isn't one of them.
EDIT:
Just for more context cus I woke up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep...
The game that Kaliyev was placed with Lewis and JAD and Grundstrom bumped up was
11/24 a 5-2 win over the Ducks
11/25 a 4-0 win over MTL (Kaliyev w Lewis/JAD)
11/29 a 2-1 that 2-1 loss to the Washington Caps (34 w/ JAD/Lewis)
12/03 a 4-1 win over the Avs (34 w/ JAD/Lewis)
That led into the road trip where they beat Columbus in OT, shutout the Habs again and then got beat by the Islanders and Rangers on back to back nights on the road to end the unbeaten streak. Many have pointed to the Islanders game as the start of the "bad times" but I always pointed to the Columbus game even tho they won that one and the next one before dropping the two NY games.
At some point last season I went back to the game where they split up 80 and 22 and decided personally that was the "start" of the "slump" even tho the record held up for a few weeks.
The Kings record from moving Kaliyev to the 4th line in favor of Carl Grundstrom til the All-Star Break when McLellan was relieved of his duties
12-12-7
After Hiller took over they were 21-12-1
Before they made the Kaliyev/Grundstrom swap they were 11-3-3
Make of all of that what you will.
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