December 26 morning skate notes

Good afternoon from the team hotel in chilly and windy Glendale. Earlier today the Kings skated at Gila River Arena, the site of tonight’s game against the Arizona Coyotes (6:00 p.m. PT / FOX Sports West / KABC 790 / I Heart Radio).

Though color-coded jerseys aren’t often used for morning skates, the Kings broke them out for their first on-ice session since Tuesday night’s loss to San Jose. They aligned as such:

White: Lucic-Kopitar-Gaborik
Blue: Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
Yellow: Lewis-Shore-Brown
Purple: Mersch-Andreoff-Nolan
Maroon: King-Weal

-Defensive pairs (McNabb-Doughty, Muzzin-Martinez, Ehrhoff-McBain) remained the same and Jonathan Quick was the first goaltender to leave the ice, so expect the lines and pairings used Tuesday to carry over into tonight’s game.

-Michael Mersch’s recall has been made official, as had been projected in Good Morning, Glendale. This was a salary cap-tied move; I’ll have further details in a story to come as well as a story on the Kings’ outlook out of the Christmas break.

-Via Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic, Louis Domingue is expected to start in net for the Coyotes, Martin Hanzal is unlikely to play, Zbynek Michalek may be a game-time decision and Nicklas Grossman should be good to go.

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