Good afternoon from El Segundo, where the Kings took the ice shortly after 10:00 a.m. Considering the first players often trickle out 15 minutes before the scheduled practice time, today’s practice began on the late side.
Notes!
-Jeff Carter was not present at practice due to a passing in his family and should rejoin the team tomorrow, “weather pending,” per Darryl Sutter. All of our condolences and thoughts are to the Carter family.
-Because of Carter’s absence, pay no attention to today’s alignment (which include groups of Gaborik-Kopitar-Lewis, King-Shore-Toffoli, Brown-Stoll-Williams and Clifford-Andreoff). I believe Jordan Nolan was also part of the Clifford-Andreoff group. Again, it doesn’t really matter; let’s revisit lines at tomorrow’s morning skate, which should feature a full group.
-Derek Forbort practiced with the team, and I’ll have a story about him up this afternoon. He had boarded a flight to Columbus on Monday that remained grounded on the tarmac in Boston for an hour and a half due to wintry conditions, by his estimation. It wasn’t the best feeling to learn from the pilot that his first NHL call-up would be delayed. “I was about to drive,” he joked. Next year, should he see time with the Kings’ highest affiliate, he’ll have that opportunity.
-Speaking of which, the new Ontario Reign logo and jerseys will be unveiled at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon.
-Alec Martinez did not practice with the team today. He remains “day-to-day,” as noted by Darryl Sutter on Sunday. It remains highly unlikely that he’ll play against Calgary Thursday night.
-Robyn Regehr practiced – he also took a few quick loops around the ice in advance of the team skate – though is not a hundred percent recovered from the illness that affected him earlier in the week. He’s powering through his discomfort.
-The team continued to break in its Legends Night equipment. The Kings will debut their gold jerseys tomorrow as part of a Legends Night devoted to former coach Barry Melrose. A limited number of tickets are still available for tomorrow’s Legends Luncheon at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar at L.A. Live.
Rules for Blog Commenting
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.