After a strange return on Saturday, Alex Turcotte is feeling good and ready to keep contributing

Saturday was a weird day, admittedly, for Kings forward Alex Turcotte.

He admitted he felt a few nerves when working his way back into the lineup for the first time since leaving the game in Nashville on November 4 with an upper-body injury, which cost him five games worth of time.

He was really only off the ice for a couple days, joining teammate Arthur Kaliyev in a red jersey during a separate practice on Thursday, November 7, skating on his own for around a week before he rejoined the full group for practice the following Friday. If there were in fact nerves during his first game back, they didn’t show early on. The Kings steamrolled a tired Detroit team during the opening period, forechecking aggressively and controlling the bulk of the action, with two late goals putting the team up 2-0 after 20 minutes, one of the season’s best periods in the offensive zone. Turcotte played his part in that, during his return to the Kings lineup.

“I was a little nervous before the game, but it’s nice to get out there, just get [the first game back] over with,” he said this morning. “I actually felt really good, so I was really excited. You know, I was pretty happy with not missing too many games, that was the goal, so I’m really happy and now I can move forward.”

Turcotte played well in the first period and into the second, though his final shift of the night came with about seven minutes remaining in the middle stanza. It was a planned decision, as we learned about after the game, with Turcotte essentially on a pitch count. The Kings had two days off before the game, meaning they were the more rested team against a Red Wings side that had played the day before in Anaheim. Hiller felt that he wanted Turcotte to play around half the game, before going down to 11 forwards the rest of the way, in an effort to ease his young forward back in. It wound up being closer to 55 percent when all was said and done.

Turcotte learned about the decision at the second intermission, when Hiller called him in privately to talk about it. A competitive player, Turcotte obviously wanted to play, especially after missing a few games coming in. He was also understanding, though, and appreciated the direct communication from Hiller.

“After the second period, [Hiller] talked to me, so I was a little worried, maybe I did something [wrong], but we had a good talk and he informed me of what the plan was,” Turcotte explained today. “I really appreciated that from him, at least telling me, not making me second guess myself, that was really nice of him. Obviously, I wanted to play the whole game, I want to be out there and I feel really good, but I get their side too.”

It was a mature and honest answer from Turcotte.

Any competitive player wants to play the game and they want to play the whole game. Human nature. If you’re in the NHL, dressed for your first game back, you want to help your team win the game.

Hiller specifically did not tell Turcotte of the plan in advance of the game. He wanted Turcotte to prepare to play the entire game and certainly didn’t want him coming in with any sort of a negative mindset, knowing his night would be shutdown early, or changing anything about the way he prepared, or perhaps going too hard in certain situations early because he knew he’d be pulled.

Turcotte said himself it was probably the right decision to tell him as he was told.

“I totally get the whole situation,” he said. “I want to play, I want to be out there all the time obviously but got to be smart as well. Everything went well, I feel really good and everyone knows that.”

Hiller understands that too.

It’s why he didn’t fill Turcotte in on the process in advance of the game. Players are competitive. Hiller was one himself and he understood exactly the reasoning behind why it made more sense to play the process out the way he did.

“I told him in between periods that it wasn’t how he played, it was just the plan, but I didn’t want to tell him ahead of time, because then he’s thinking about it. Just let him play, we pulled him back, got him back out there at practice today and have a couple of good days and he’ll be ready to play the whole game in the next one.”

Hiller couldn’t recall ever working through a situation like that before or opting to go in that direction before. He had never experienced it as a player, for sure, though he’s been a coach since 2002, so it’s possible that it happened somewhere along the way. He did note that it was his decision to manage the bench in that way, not something dictated by management.

Personally, I could never remember a pitch count situation in the NHL. Can recall situations where players who typically play higher in the lineup were used in a lesser role, to manage their minutes and manage the difficulty of certain situations for those players. With Turcotte, the Kings like the way he fits with Kopitar and Kempe and wanted him in that role. They didn’t want to reduce his role, they wanted him to play with those two players, feeling it was the most effective version of that line to date.

“They’re two great players, Juice is a great goalscorer and Kopi is one of the best 200-foot players of all time, so it’s just really easy,” Turcotte said of playing on that line. “We read off each other really well and we’re all just out there playing our own games, and my game with them is to be an energizer bunny, win battles, get the puck to them and try to find them. It felt really good [on Saturday].”

With practice today, Turcotte was back alongside Kopitar and Kempe and as Hiller noted, his expectation is for a full 60 minutes of availability on Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres.

Dating back to games they’ve played together last season, that line has more than double the xGF as xGA, controlling more than 65 percent of shots on goal in right around 40 minutes together at 5-on-5. With Turcotte in that spot, it sets the rest of the lineup into place, allowing Trevor Moore to go back with Phillip Danault and Quinton Byfield to play center. the Moore/Danault/Fiala line had maybe their best game of the season, with 24 shot attempts in 12:37 together. Hiller believes Byfield will get going as well. If it all comes together, Turcotte working in that spot adds a ton of depth for the Kings. Back feeling good, close to 100 percent, he’ll get a full chance to make an impact on Wednesday evening.

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