Kings camp, Day 1 – checking in with the new guys and Muzzin

Some raw quotes following the Kings afternoon session on the first day of training camp 2013…

– Jake Muzzin on if he did anything fun over the summer: “Nope. Strictly business all summer.” (sarcasm)

– Muzzin on if he uses the nickname Gordo, what teammates now call Jordan Nolan: “I don’t call him Gordo. I call him Nolly, Noles, Jordan, Jordan Nolan, sometimes Gordo….When I get mad at him I go full ‘Jordan Nolan.'”

– Muzzin on Willie Mitchell coming back: “It’s great, a veteran presence in the room. The guys been around, he has a lot of experience in the league. He’s a great leader and he’s been around, like I said. He brings a calmness to the room. He’s a great defender for our club.”

– Muzzin on if he did anything differently this summer to prepare for the upcoming season: “With my history and my back, I just like to do a lot of injury prevention workouts and stuff like that. Not so much the heavy lifting that some guys do when they are younger. I worked on getting my legs a little stronger. The bigger guys hit harder and stuff like that, so I want to stay on my feet a little more. Pretty much just the injury prevention stuff and getting my legs a little stronger, a little faster.”

– Muzzin on how the communication was on the ice today with his partner Matt Greene: “It was OK. Day 1 at camp, just getting back into hard battles that we haven’t done in awhile. A little adjustment for me, but Greener and I, our communication on the ice is loud and clear and we have to continue building it.”

– Muzzin on if Greene has yelled at him yet: “No. Not yet. Not one the ice, anyways.”

– Muzzin on his approach coming into a camp with so many defensemen this year: “You have to go and earn your spot, nothing is given to you at camp.”

– Muzzin on what he wants to build on following his rookie season: “Just continue getting better. It was a good year for me, and that’s just the first step. I want to continue getting better in all aspects of the game, and get stronger and just get better.”

– Muzzin on the primary lesson he learned last season: “Just consistency. You have to be consistent every day. Every time you’re on the ice. The wanting to get better and push yourself, and not get complacent or anything like that. For me, come into the rink every day, get better and improve.”

– Dan Carcillo on his first official skate as an LA King: “Good. It’s nice to get to know all the guys and they came in a couple of weeks early. It’s nice to be here with Jeff and Mike, obviously we played together for some years. All the guys are great, so I’m really excited to get this year going.”

– Carcillo on how he mentally prepares for a camp where he’s competing for a spot on either the second, third or fourth line, knowing each has such a different set of requirements: “It’s kind of the same scenario as I’ve been in on every team. It seems like I’m kind of up and down between second, third, fourth sometimes. My role really doesn’t change the way I play. Obviously if you’re up there with the big guys, there is a little more emphasis on the offensive game. For right now, I’ve played 50 games in the last two years, so I’m trying to get in skating shape and that’s coming. I feel the best I’ve felt in two years, so it’s encouraging and I’m just excited to get going.”

– Carcillo on any interaction with Darryl Sutter today: “Not much. Just do your thing. Practice. Practice hard. That’s about it.”

– Carcillo on how, if at all, being involved in a competition for a roster spot can be helpful to a player: “I think we’re all mentally strong. Guys who have been in this league for a couple of years, I think have figured it out. I like to think I’m one of those guys. You just have to come in here and play your game. It’s a new coach- Johnny knows me a little bit from Philly which helps a little bit, and he knows what I can do. So now it’s just proving myself to Darryl, and to Davis and Dean and going from there.”

– Matt Frattin on his first official skate as an LA King: “I’ve been skating for the majority of the guys for about three weeks now. This is something new (?) in front of the coaches, the coaches out there and running the drills. It was definitely good to get it out of the way with the fitness testing and just move on from there. It was a good first day today.”

– Frattin on any interaction with Darryl Sutter today: “I didn’t talk to him too much, but he put some good drills together and it was a good up-tempo practice. I enjoyed it, it was good. Got my legs going a little bit and it was good to get a little chemistry with my linemates.”

– Frattin on any big games he’s circled on his calendar: “I can imagine the Chicago games would be huge for this whole dressing room, also the St. Louis games. Also going back home to Edmonton, I haven’t played in Edmonton- that’s my home town. That’s definitely one I’ll circle for the first day we go there…That was my team growing up. Moved on from there. That was a little bit after they had their dynasty going. My dad loved it and he got me definitely on board with the Oilers growing up.”

– Frattin on his favorite Oiler as a kid: “I have to say I actually liked Mike Comrie for a little while. I don’t know why. There’s so many guys. I love Ryan Smyth, he’s a hard nosed guy. They definitely didn’t have as good of a team as they did in the 80’s when my dad was telling me about them. But it was fun.”

Quotes from Anze Kopitar can be found here.

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