MayorsManor Live Radio with Monarchs head coach Mark Morris

Even with the NHL in lockout mode, there’s plenty of hockey action ramping up across North America. Out east in New Hampshire the LA Kings top minor league affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, are wrapping up their first week of training camp.

Tomorrow night they’ll kick off their exhibition schedule vs. the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (affiliate of the New York Islanders).  First though, Manchester head coach Mark Morris called in today for his inaugural visit to MayorsManor radio.

He’s been at the helm of the Monarchs now for six seasons and was instrumental in the development of many players who were on the Kings’ roster during their run to the Stanley Cup earlier this year.

Already the most successful coach in the team’s history (253 regular season wins), Morris was openly excited about the upcoming AHL season - describing his roster as perhaps the most talented group they’ve ever had there.  Not only are the Monarchs slated to benefit from the lockout by getting players such as Andrei Loktionov and Slava Voynov, but they’re are also inheriting a plethora of top junior hockey talent – Tyler Toffoli, Andy Andreoff and Tanner Pearson just to name a few.

Some of the topics we’ll discuss on today’s show include:

- What’s the plan in net, will Martin Jones split time with JF Berube?

- The relationship between Jones and outgoing goalie Jeff Zatkoff

- Jones vs Jonathan Bernier

- The departure of Ray Kaunisto. Was he a distraction at times?

- Terry Murray on Brandon Kozun - and is the 2009 draft pick confident or cocky?

- Is Linden Vey underrated?

- Just how good is Toffoli?

- Is Jake Muzzin NHL-ready?

- The ongoing development of Nick Deslauriers and the QMJHL impact on a dman

- The process he goes through in creating line combinations

- How are Jordan Nolan, Loktionov and Voynov handling their AHL assignment?

- Is the NHL lockout making his job any easier right now?

- A few of the well known NHL players Morris coached at Clarkson University

We’ll cover all of that and much more today. Give it a listen…

NOTE: If you’re on an ipad or iphone, click here to listen to today’s episode.

Recently, we had several of the Monarchs players on MayorsManor radio – including Toffoli, Muzzin and Jones.  If you missed any of those shows, click here to see the full list.  Some of the Kings players have also been dropping by too – guys like Alec Martinez, Kevin Westgarth and Colin Fraser.

Plus, last week we had new Kings assistant coach Davis Payne joined us for an amazing show!  Don’t miss him sharing stories about his playing days with Bill Ranford, Mark Hardy, Mark Bavis and many others. He also talks about Dustin Penner trying to bribe him and interviewing on Darryl Sutter’s ranch this summer. Give it a listen here.

If you’d like to see those line combinations Morris discussed during today’s show, we have them posted here.

And one final note, Friday night’s pre-season game between Manchester and Bridgeport will be streamed live on the internet for free.  Click here for more info.

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