February 1 Practice Notes: New Month, New Lines

The LA Kings headed over to Northwell Health Ice Center this afternoon for their first official team practice since January 20.

A recent heatwave brought the temperature all the way up to 20 degrees, so spirits were high heading into today’s session at the NY Islanders training facility.

Iafallo – Kopitar – Brown

Leipsic – Carter – Toffoli

Kovalchuk – Kempe – Hagelin

Clifford – Amadio – Wagner

Luff – Lewis – Brodzinski

 

Doughty – Forbort

Fantenberg – Martinez

Phaneuf – LaDue

Walker

 

Quick

Campbell

Lineup notes:

Nate Thompson did not travel with the team to Long Island. He stayed back in Los Angeles to get over the flu, but he is expected to join the team during their six-game road trip.

Trevor Lewis and Jonny Brodzinski are back! …Well, closer to being back.

Both traveled with the team and suited up for today’s practice.

“We’ve been out of the lineup for a while, so we should try to make sure we stand out at practice.” – Jonny Brodzinski and Trevor Lewis before putting on yellow jerseys, probably pic.twitter.com/YD3AW2wHZc

— PumperNicholl (@PumperNicholl) February 1, 2019

Head coach Willie Desjardins said he expects Lewis to return to the lineup during the road trip, but he doesn’t think that Brodzinski is quite ready to return to game action.

The line of Ilya Kovalchuk, Adrian Kempe and Carl Hagelin looked fast and very creative. In my expert opinion, both of those things are good.

Favorite moment of practice: Jonathan Quick moonwalking after making a save on a breakaway attempt by Kovalchuk.

Sadly, no video was captured.

More updates coming shortly, including:

• Drew Doughty’s thoughts on the Jake Muzzin trade
• Adrian Kempe weighs in on Carl Grundstrom