Good morning from Anaheim, where the Kings have finished speaking with reporters following their morning skate at the Honda Center. Several notes in advance of tonight’s game against the Ducks (7:00 p.m. / KCOP-13):
-Derek Forbort has been assigned to AHL-Manchester. Forbort did not get into any games with the Kings, having served as an insurance defenseman following the injury to Alec Martinez on February 7. This follows a pair of defense-oriented moves over the last two days after the Kings acquired Andrej Sekera from Carolina and placed Martinez on injured reserve. As it stands, the club now has seven active defensemen: Greene, McNabb, McBain, Muzzin, Sekera, Doughty and Regehr.
-It’s unclear who will draw out of the lineup to accommodate Sekera, but I’m leaning on it being Jamie McBain, who hasn’t eclipsed the 13-minute mark over the last eight games and occupies a spot Sekera can play in. McBain plays on the right side, and Sekera, a left-shooting defenseman capable of playing on both the left and the right sides, could be an asset to spell some of the minutes absorbed by right defenseman Drew Doughty. Sekera played occasionally with Robyn Regehr while with Buffalo. “That year we were rotating everybody everywhere, so it was kind of weird,” he said. “We played together for a little bit of a long time down there.” I’ll have more from Sekera later this afternoon, as well as a conversation with John Stevens on acclimating a new player into the lineup. “One thing we started with [Sekera] last night was just having him sit with the guys who weren’t playing, with Andy and Tanner, and not just watch the game, but hopefully talk through some of the zones and what to expect in terms of team play,” Stevens said. Darryl Sutter didn’t speak with reporters this morning.
-Martin Jones left the ice first at the morning skate and is expected to draw the start in net against the Ducks. Jonathan Quick’s string of consecutive starts is likely to end at a career-long 16 games.
–The best goalie Sutter has ever seen will draw the start against Los Angeles:
John Gibson off the ice first as expected. He's your Ducks starter against the Kings.
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) February 27, 2015
-Grainy Andrej Sekera photo enthusiasts, today is your day:
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