Wooooooooooooooo (meaningless split-squad) hockey (that you can’t watch on TV) is back!!!!
Los Angeles Kings v Phoenix Coyotes
Game 1: Coyotes @ Kings, Staples Centre, 7.00 PM, listen on 1150 AM | Roster
Game 2: Kings @ Coyotes, Jobing.com arena, 7.00 PM, updates at LA Kings Insider | Roster
Game(s) notes:
- For those of you who only come around when actual hockey is being played (not that I blame you), welcome back!
- According to the @LAKingsPR account, defenceman Alex Roach, forward Maxim Kitsyn, and goaltender Mathias Niederberger are the expected scratches in Phoenix tonight. I’m a little disappointed that Kitsyn won’t be playing, but since the NHL in its infinite wisdom has chosen not to stream preseason games on its website, I suppose it doesn’t really matter anyway.
- With Niederberger scratched, it looks like the tandems will be Garon/Berube in LA and Scrivens/Jones in Phoenix. Preseason games don’t mean anything at all, but we haven’t heard much substantive news out of camp on Mathieu Garon, and I’m curious to see if any of the Kings coaches will have any comment on Garon after the game tonight.
- Dustin Brown continues to nurse a “slight” hamstring injury suffered in the first day of training camp and won’t be suiting up tonight. Willie Mitchell is apparently not quite ready to play in his first pro hockey game in fourteen months, so he’ll also be sitting out tonight.
- Apparently the plan is for the Kings to start the season carrying eight defencemen. If Mitchell is able to get back into game shape for the start of the season, the locks are Mitchell, Drew Doughty, Slava Voynov, (ugh) Robyn Regehr, and (likely) Matt Greene. My hope is that the other three are Jake Muzzin, Alec Martinez, and [miscellaneous third dude] but I fear that the other three will be Muzzin, Keaton Ellerby, and Jeff Schultz, with Martinez likely shipped away for not enough return.
- Jeff Carter thinks that Dan Carcillo could play on the Kings’ top line, and I think it’s time we launch a serious public inquiry into the deleterious effect of spray tans on brain cells.
- Go Kings Go