Ethan Moreau was practically a member of the Kings before he ever signed a contract.
Over the last few seasons, many of his former friends and one-time teammates were traded here – guys like Jarret Stoll, Matt Greene and Dustin Penner.
Combine that with the fact he’s spent many of those summers in Southern California training with his brother – and occasionally some of the Kings players – and you’ll start to understand why he already felt like Los Angeles was home.
It wasn’t even that surprising to him when Kings captain Dustin Brown thumbed out a ‘welcome aboard’ tweet soon after his deal with Kings GM Dean Lombardi was made official.
“I’ve had tough games against Brownie and we’ve kind of gone at it on the ice,” said Moreau. “But, I’ve gotten to know him over the years and he was one of the first guys to call me. Overall, I have a pretty good relationship with most of the guys on the team. So, it was almost hard to play the Kings because I knew so many players on the team, just from being here in the summers and training with them and skating with them.”
Even so, as a professional athlete, he says he was able to flip the necessary switch on game nights.
“Well, you can ask Stolly or Greener – I’ve had run-ins with both of them,” Moreau began to explain. “I think for me, it’s almost like I don’t want to have friends out there. I almost go out of my to make sure that I prove that to my teammates. I’m never going to play anybody lightly because I know them. I probably play them a little bit harder so people don’t think you’re taking it easy on them.”
Apparently, he’s not pulling punches off the ice either.
Asked to weigh-in on the momentum-gaining debate over which guy is funnier, Greene or Penner…well, let’s just say he has a clear point of view – neither.
“I think they both stole a lot of my material. When they left Edmonton they took all my jokes. That’s probably why they’re funny.”
Could be.
Stay tuned for a response from Greene and Penner. We’re not expecting either of those guys to take the high road on this one.
