Kings Recall Alex Turcotte from AHL-Ontario + Byfield Update, Practice Notes from St. Louis

Good afternoon from the Gateway to the West!

First things first, a roster move to announce.

The LA Kings have recalled forward Alex Turcotte from the AHL’s Ontario Reign.

Turcotte did not join the Kings for practice here today, but is en route from Tucson to St. Louis to meet up with the NHL club.

By all accounts, Turcotte has been one of the most impactful players for the Reign so far this season. Overcoming a couple of injuries – unrelated to past issues as General Manager Rob Blake clarified last week – that cost him a few games, Turcotte has been both productive and impactful with the minor-league club. While he’s moved between center and wing throughout the early stages of his professional career, he’s found a real home down the middle and that’s where he’s played his best hockey with the Reign this season.

After his midseason availability, Blake was asked about the progress of both Turcotte and forward Akil Thomas, who has also been one of the team’s best offensive forwards. Blake spoke about how both players have not only played well, but how they’ve played larger roles than they have in seasons past. For Turcotte, that’s been regular minutes as the team’s usual 2C behind veteran and captain T.J. Tynan, logging some minutes on special teams and being not just a productive player, but someone who is making those around him better.

Ontario Reign Head Coach Marco Sturm has spoken complementarily of Turcotte and his development with the Reign this season.

“It’s always good to have Turcotte back. He’s been out for a little while and in key situations, we’ve definitely missed him. It’s nice to have him.”

Sturm called Turcotte’s game “outstanding” after his first game back and the Illinois native has continued to make an impact in the games that have followed.

As noted above, Turcotte did not practice today with the Kings, as he travels from Arizona to Missouri. He’s expected to link up with the team early this evening and would be an option for the Kings to choose from tomorrow, should they opt to work him into the lineup. With Blake Lizotte out, having an additional option at center over these next two games isn’t a bad thing. Personally, looking forward to seeing what he can do with another crack at the NHL level.

Regarding the players who were here today, as the Kings hit the ice at Enterprise Center, we saw the following alignment during practice –

Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Fiala
Laferriere – Dubois – Anderson-Dolan
Grundstrom – Lewis – Kaliyev – Fagemo

Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence – Clarke

Rittich / Talbot

Not a ton of change to report from today.

First things first though, good to see forward Quinton Byfield back on the ice and back with the main group. Byfield missed last night’s game in Colorado due to illness. In speaking with Todd McLellan this morning, he is expecting Byfield to be in the lineup tomorrow.

It’s a time of the year when there’s illness aplenty. McLellan acknowledged as much with his team, but does not feel that it’s anything that will keep anyone, including Byfield, out of the lineup tomorrow against the Blues.

“Everybody’s got some sniffles and stuff, we’re not the only team this time of the year and when we’re traveling as much as we are, it’s bound to happen,” McLellan added. “Nothing that’s going to keep anybody out of the lineup, at least today.”

As far as today’s practice day went, it wasn’t your typical cleanout day, to use the term McLellan has referenced regularly, but it certainly wasn’t a day where the Kings put the pucks away and skated. Cleanout elements, yes, but there was more to it from what we saw.

One element that was different was an extended walkthrough session on the ice.

McLellan noted that today, he and the coaching staff felt that the walkthrough was better served on the ice, as opposed to via video or on a whiteboard. Essentially running a video clip in real time, on the ice, with the guys taking part and going through the motions. It’s something different than we’ve seen in past practices, directly in reaction to things the Kings didn’t like in yesterday’s game in Colorado.

“It was a clean out day, but some of that stuff that you saw happens off the ice on a cleanout day, it happens in the locker room or on the board, we just felt that we needed to do that on the ice so that they felt a little bit of spatial awareness and certain cues for different things,” McLellan said. “By no means taxing, about the same amount of time as a cleanout day, but with an on-ice purpose or focus.”

While the Kings felt the structure was better against Colorado than it was against Buffalo, McLellan pointed to breakouts as an area of letdown last night.

“Our breakouts off our structure weren’t as clean as they have been in the past and that’s an area that we talked about today.”

The Kings also took the opportunity today to work on the shootout as a group.

Every player had at least one opportunity to shoot on either Cam Talbot or David Rittich. For a team that’s lost 13 of 15, that drill from the perspective of the players seemed like an animated. For the guys, it was a drill they seemed to enjoy. Stick taps after some of the prettier goals…..shootout hero Mikey Anderson incoming?

For the coaches, though, it was a drill they kept a close eye on. While it’s a situational thing, the Kings have been one of the NHL’s worst teams in the shootout this season, both in terms of scoring goals and preventing them, which has ultimately seen a number of points left on the table. It wasn’t a taxing drill or a long drill, but it was a drill the coaches had an eye on, should upcoming games venture into a shootout situation.

“We’re keeping an eye out, we haven’t had a lot of luck and shootouts, our goaltenders needed the work in those in those situations and our forwards and D, we paid attention and there’s a chance that we could, depending on who is playing well that night, maybe we make different decisions if it comes into that situation. There was some hooting and hollering, there were some nice goals scored, there were some big saves, you like all of that as a byproduct of the drill, but we’re also paying attention.”

A couple of areas of focus.

With the stretch the Kings are in, the problems right now are larger than a specific detail or area of the game. Practice days to work on more specific areas are still important, though, and that’s what today focused on. We’ll get the real test tomorrow, in the first of two games to close out January against teams right on the heels of the Kings in the wild card standings.

Onto tomorrow, the Kings will not have a morning skate in St. Louis, before taking on the Blues. 1 PM puck drop here on Central time, 11 AM back in California.