After several game postponements and some extended time off during the holidays, coach Todd McLellan and his LA Kings will return to the ice tonight in Downtown LA. It will be their first game in the newly-named Crypto.com Arena and they’re scheduled to wear their white alternate jerseys with the chrome helmets.
Phil Danault and Quinton Byfield remain in protocol. A few other players joined them just before the league shutdown prior to Christmas:
LA Kings roster update…
Dustin Brown and Olli Maatta placed in protocol.
Meanwhile, Doughty has been cleared. He's out.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) December 26, 2021
Alex Turcotte has been officially activated from the taxi squad and is expected to make his NHL debut. As previously reported, he will most likely be playing with Trevor Moore and Viktor Arvidsson.
In 18 games with AHL Ontario Reign this season, Turcotte has recorded 10 points (3G, 7A). Last year, he finished with .66 points per game, among the leaders on the team.
McLellan on Turcotte – Energy type player, strips a lot of pucks, creates turnovers for teammates, will watch how quickly he reads things defensively here. In talking with Hajt, he's earned the call-up and is ready.
Todd also indicated if Turc plays next game, likely w/ 12 & 33.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) December 26, 2021
McLellan on Turcotte — We'd be talking about Turcotte more at the NHL level if we hadn't signed Danault or if Kupari hadn't played so well in the first half this year. That doesn't diminish Turc's value or the career he'll have. He's developing just fine.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) December 27, 2021
Turcotte, Lizotte, and JAD practicing faceoffs with Chris Hajt.
At least based on groupings earlier in the skate, it appears Anderson-Dolan may slide into the 3C spot tonight. We'll see.
Turcotte still needs to be activated and other potential roster moves to come.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) December 28, 2021
Based upon groupings this morning, it appears Jaret Anderson-Dolan will likely slide into the 3C spot, replacing Rasmus Kupari (who was not present for the skate).
As for the remaining lineup, here’s how things are looking…
LA KINGS PROJECTED LINEUP vs. VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS on 12/28
Kempe – Kopitar – Iafallo
Moore – Turcotte – Arvidsson
Andersson – JAD – Grundstrom
Lemieux – Lizotte – Kaliyev
Other options: Frk and Kupari
IR: Athanasiou
Protocol: Brown and Danault
Anderson – Doughty
Wolanin – Roy
Bjornfot – Durzi
Other options: Moverare
Protocol: Maatta
Quick (starter)
Sparks
Protocol: Petersen
On the Vegas side of things:
Vegas typically don’t wear their gold helmets on the road, so we’ll assume this isn’t going to be a silver vs. gold helmet game tonight.
Lines at first post holiday practice
Carrier-Stephenson-Janmark
Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith
Brooks-Roy-Kolesar
Patrick-Rondbjerg-Amadio-LeschshynTheodore-Whitecloud
McNabb-Coghlan
Hutton-Miromanov
HagueBrossoit
Thompson— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) December 27, 2021
Reading into this… I would suspect that both Hague and Pacioretty are game-time decisions, while Mark Stone likely will not play.
Vegas will also be without Alex Pietrangelo, Evgenii Dadonov, and Brett Howden due to Covid protocol. https://t.co/4cq0NcVbXX
— Ryan The Hockey Guy (@RyanHockeyGuy) December 28, 2021
The Golden Knights have been deploying a new setup in the neutral zone this season in hopes of creating more turnovers and forcing more dump-ins.
Here's a full film breakdown of what it looks like, why it works, the benefits, and the drawbacks. pic.twitter.com/A6FsvrQPXv
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) December 28, 2021
KINGS MILESTONES WITHIN REACH
Anze Kopitar – needs 43 points to pass Dave Taylor for third on the Kings all-time scoring list
Dustin Brown — 8 goals away from passing Bernie Nicholls for fifth place in Kings franchise history
Drew Doughty — 14 games away from playing in his 1,000th NHL regular season game
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 pm PST tonight and the game will be on Bally Sports Network.
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