Monday saw the trade. Tuesday was the physical. Wednesday featured the first practice.
Thursday night was all about Dustin Penner’s debut as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been this excited.” said Penner just prior to the game.
* Penner was the 10th left wing to start along side Anze Kopitar on the first line.
* He entered play with 25 career games vs the Coyotes, where he scored 12 goals, added four assists (16 points) and had a minus-6 rating.
* Of his 406 career games played, 68 of them were on a Thursday – the second highest of any day of the week (one behind the 69 on Saturday). However, in an odd quirk, he had scored the fewest goals (13) and most assists (25) on a Thursday.
* At Staples Center, all versus the Kings, he had scored seven goals in 14 career games.
* In his debut for the Kings he spent 16:45 on the ice (14:49 even strength, 1:56 power play).
* Had a team-high five hits, including the Panasonic Hit of the Night.
* Perhaps an NHL first – Penner was voted the first, second and third star of the game.
After the Kings 1-0 win, coach Terry Murray said “Penner was good. I thought he had an impact in the game and he used his size several times and had some impact hits in the offensive zone on the forecheck. He’s very responsible away from the puck and he made some good plays coming through the middle of the ice on a couple of breakouts. It was a nice first game. Welcome to the team.”
Here are the only three non-Penner notes from the game:
* Jarret Stoll scored his 18th goal of the season, his fifth game winner
* Jonathan Bernier started his 18th game of the season and stopped all 25 shots for his second shutout of the year.
* Former King Eric Belanger was playing in his 700th NHL game.
Now back to Penner – rather than the usual video highlight package, there was a hard-cam isolated on #25 for every shift. Take a look…
Come on, seriously – did you really think the entire video package would be about Penner?
The Mayor
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