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Baby Kings Send a 6-1 Message in First Rookie Game Vs. Ducks |
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In a scoreline that surprised me the Kings took out the highly stacked and talked about system of the Anaheim Ducks 6-1 at Honda Center Saturday night in front of over 8,000 fans.
The two will meet again on Monday night at Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo but the first of the two game set was claimed in resounding fashion by the Los Angeles rookies.
Goals ended up coming from Pearson (2), Andreoff (2), Miller, and Deslauriers for the Kings, while Rakell had the lone tally for the Ducks.
I wasn't able to attend the game in person but I did catch a lot of it on the stream the Ducks put up on their site thankfully! Few thoughts:
Bobkov. Ouch. I remember when he was playing in the world juniors with Russia and people were talking about how he could turn into a great goalie. He had a very bad season last year and looks like he'll be starting in the ECHL with John Gibson on the way and Andersen playing well. Not a King related note but ouch, just ouch. He was in goal for four of the King goals and at least three of them were somewhat weak.
Ducks have a lot of skill, that was obvious, but they just seemed to lack that killer instinct which the baby Kings had. A lot of nifty dangles and dishes led to a whole lot of nothing for the Ducks.
Berube played fantastic, stopping 26 of 27 in two periods before making way for Matthias Neiderberger. The goal he gave up was a pretty weak rebound, but nonetheless he had very good game. Solid and calm positioning all night.
As advertised Zykov is agressive. Super agressive. Sometimes a little too much, but the kid plays with a nasty edge and seems to love crashing the net and mucking it up. Good solid skill too, had a couple of real nice shifts with some good puck possession. Lightning in a bottle that one.
Andreoff was superb. He's making a massive push to make this team. He looks like he could be a fantastic addition to the King bottom lines. He really showed some fantastic hands with the two goals he scored. Both were beautiful wristers. If I were a betting man I'd be expecting him to make the big club this year out of camp. Fraser, Nolan, and King better be taking note of this kid because he could be playing one of them into the pressbox.
Vey, Toffoli, Pearson, best line on the ice all night, hands down. You could have expected that though considering they played together nearly all of last season. Nonetheless it was a very solid effort from the top line. They make too much sense together. Pearson is a horse, Vey is a crafty and intelligent playmaker and Toffoli is the sniper. Is it possible we see this line intact in LA at some point? That would be fun.
Vey in particular was very impressive to me. He has a tremendous hockey sense and his playmaking skills are ridiculous. He fed Pearson beautifully on a break away on the third King goal and gave fans a little taste of what he can do with the puck on his stick. When you watch Vey he dictates the play on the ice. He is a quarterback in every aspect of the offensive zone and he makes passes that look impossible at first glance. He is definitely knocking on the door of the NHL level.
Kitsyn is Frolov 2.0. He loves to possess the puck, loves to use his size and strength in the corners, and I'm really glad to see him return out of the KHL with the same fight and fire he had before. While not contributing on the score sheet the line of Weal, Kitsyn and Sabourin was very good. Sabourin, a free agent signing in April with the Monarchs, had a great scrap with Kenton Helgesen in the first.
Weal is a tough one to me. It seemed like he lost the majority of his draws, and while he plays his butt off the size differential is glaring at times. You hate to judge a player based on that but it's hard not to notice it. The effort from him was unbelivable last night and he had a great game. He's got a long way to go though and a lot to prove still, but he does work very hard and that's going to get him somewhere hopefully.
One of the more solid performances was Derek Forbort. The reach of this kid is ridiculous. I loved watching his 5-on-3 play, he was single handedly shutting down Duck passing lanes with his Rob Scuderi-esque stick checks. He still had some pretty iffy blunders, most the time on poor reads, but for the most part he made sure they didn't turn into blunders that led to goals. He's a solid defender and to me a good projected top-four stay-at-home defenseman. He'll need a year or so but the potential is certainly there and I think the patience will pay off.
Some of the bad things? Penalties. The kids were amped up no doubt and it led to some overly agressive penalties. Reffing was so-so and you could argue some of the calls as being weak but man did the King rookies just come out looking to intimidate and run over the Ducks. I'll take that kind of agression.
Kurtis MacDermid got pounded in a scrap with Ross Johnston. I mean, it wasn't even close.
They say you have to be a good skater to be a good fighter, and MacDermid doesn't look like a good skater...ergo...
Kings lost the shootout at the end. Meh.
Take these opinions with a grain of salt, it was a solitary game, rookies on rookies. Obviously not everything is going to translate to another level. However, I have to say, as someone who covers BOTH the Kings and the Ducks system at Hockey's Future...this was a surprise. Kings top end prospects are very good and seemingly NHL ready. Ducks system is full of raw talent and a lot of potential still figuring it out. The difference was clear.
Monday should be a fun one as well with a few roster changes and a pretty different atmosphere. Be sure to catch the stream (if there is one) if you don't want to make the trek down to El Segundo.
Good effort from LA and a lot to be excited about as we approach the start of training camp and the season.
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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