Centers of attention

One thing we know: Corey Elkins will make his NHL debut tonight, making him the fifth Kings player to do so this season, behind Alec Martinez, Scott Parse, Andrei Loktionov and Brayden Schenn. Where, exactly, Elkins will play remains to be seen.

With Jarret Stoll out, the Kings have five players capable of playing center: Kopitar, Handzus, Moller, Richardson and Elkins. As posted this morning, Terry Murray still isn’t quite sure how he wants to use his forwards. Elkins has eight goals in 30 games with Manchester this season, so he does have some scoring touch, but it has been explained to me that his game might resemble Handzus’ more than it does Kopitar’s, for instance.

Here’s what Murray said this morning about getting Elkins in the game, and what he feels Elkins might bring…

MURRAY: “In listening to how he’s playing down there, he’s one of their better players, maybe their best player down there right now, and scoring goals. I’m going to have to put him in some situations where he’s very responsible, on a higher line, and get a look at it. I’m going to give him a chance and see how he’s going to play, and evaluate it as the shifts go by, and then make decisions.

“Clearly, with Stoll out of the lineup, I’m going to need a center iceman that’s in that 2-3 spot, whether I move Zeus up or leave him and put someone else in Stoll’s position. I’ve yet to make that decision yet. There’s going to be an opportunity for Elkins to get some good minutes.”

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.