After nearly a month-long training camp, the night is finally here — Opening Night of LA’s 2022-23 NHL season. For Game One, the Kings will skate in their white Heritage jerseys, along with their silver helmets. Rumor is, the visiting Golden Knights will counter with their gold helmets. We’ll see how things play out during warmups.
Tuesday’s game-day skate was optional (i.e. Arvidsson, Kempe, Moore, Doughty, etc. did not participate), so the below lineup is projected. However, coach Todd McLellan did address the media on Monday, sharing thoughts on several players:
LA Kings Projected Lineup vs Golden Knights
Fiala – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Arvidsson
Iafallo – Byfield – Kaliyev
Grundstrom – Lizotte – Vilardi
Anderson – Doughty
Durzi – Roy
Edler – Walker
Quick
Petersen
Healthy scratches: JAD, Lemieux, Clarke
Additional Notes
On the Vegas side of things, there are a few notes to pass along…
— Defenseman Nic Hague was just signed to a three-year contract extension worth an average annual value of $2,294,150. He’s appeared in 142 NHL games, all with the Golden Knights, and recorded 42 points (10 G, 32 A) over three seasons. Hague became the fourth draft selection in team history on June 23, 2017, when selected in the second round (34th overall). However, he’s currently injured and not expected to play tonight.
— New head coach Bruce Cassidy has put in a retooled defensive system. VGK are running a zone defense under Cassidy and they’ve had some success and some struggles adapting to it throughout the preseason.
— First Line Kessel: the Golden Knights have added Phil Kessel to their top forward combo, currently utilizing a group of Smith-Eichel-Kessel.
Your #GoKingsGo question of the day…
From this list, who scores the first goal of LA's 2022-23 season?
— The Mayor (@mayorNHL) October 11, 2022
Puck drop is set for 7:00pm PST on Tuesday and will be televised by ESPN.
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Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please remember to include a link to www.MayorsManor.com
Thanks for everything you do for the community Mayor! Looking forward to another season of Kings hockey and your coverage. What’s going on with the prospect rankings? I know it’s something a lot of us look forward to every year and there hasn’t been anything on it since March when you did the goalies. I hope you guys continue this series!
Interesting. Clarke to the press box is probably the right call, as there will be fewer reasons for jitters when he does make his debut. However, Mayor, I do share your concern about putting Vilardi on the fourth line just to get him some minutes. I would probably rather bump down Iafallo. I hope he gets some power play time, at least.