The good news: Official hockey was back as the Kings did their yearly split squad game with the Phoenix Coyotes both at Staples and Jobing.Com Arena.
The bad news: They lost both games. One by a considerable margin, and the other...well...it had some ugliness.
Hey though, it's only preseason and as the lovely Bailey pointed out on twitter...
It's true. It is only preseason so fear not. Although of course we'd have loved to see them dominate both games by a 7-0 margin.
The reality was that the Kings A squad lost a blowout game at Staples Center 5-1, and the B squad lost at Jobing.com 4-2 and could lose Jordan Nolan for what early reports are indicating a brutal illegal hit to the head of Rosty Klesla. More on that later.
First though, the 5-1 loss. Mathieu Garon may have wished his tryout game was a little bit different, but it wasn't. He unfortunately was the starter in a side that had most of the team's guns, including Kopitar, Doughty, Carter, Richards and Voynov.
Here is the full roster courteosy of the Kings for the game at Staples.
The Phoenix roster has a ton more youth injected into it when you compare it to the squad that took the ice in Phoenix. However, that's pretty much what you can expect. A lot of the fulltime NHLers are going through the motions getting ready while the young players are fighting for jobs. That being said, I'm sure Darryl Sutter will have some fun profanity ladened pointers for the guys. Let's get through this quick and easy. Phoenix goals came from Klinkhammer, Brule, Latandresse and twice from that notorious sniper Brandon Yip. Tough to fault Garon on a few as it sounded on the radio feed (thank you Nick and Darryl) like there was some pretty significant defensive breakdowns. Garon was in net the entirety of the game, leaving me personally a touch disappointed. I was hoping that we'd see a little bit of Berube but alas, it was not in the cards.
The lone marker came off the stick of Slava Voynov, and it was the final tally of a rather lopsided affair. Your Los Angeles Kings one, the Phoenix Coyotes five. Hopefully the first and only time we hear something along those lines. According to coach Stevens though the bright spot on the ice for the Kings was the line of Zykov, Shore and Sabourin. The latter of the three, Sabourin, has been rather impressive since rookie camp opened and was a completely under the radar signing to most fans (myself included). Sabourin, who was an overager with Osahwa last season, stands at 6'3" 190ish and is coming off a good final year in juniors.
He might be an interesting player moving forward to keep an eye on. He could be a solid bottom line addition to Manchester as he plays a power forward style game with what seems like a decent nose for the net.
Game number two out at the beautiful Jobing.com arena (No sarcasm, I hear it's a fantastic building) the kids gave it a little better of a go.
Here
are your rosters for the B game courteousy of the LA Kings site yet again.
As you can see the Coyotes loaded up the home squad with regulars such as Hanzal, Doan, Yandle, Vrbata, and OEL (Ekman-Larsson). Meanwhile the Kings had a roster with only nine NHL players. They jumped out of the gate early and were up by two within the first five minutes on goals by Pearson and Kozun. However, the Yotes A squad slowly wittled their way back against Scrivens and the Kings. Goals from Yandle, Doan, Schwarz, and Boedker.
Would you expect a Coyotes - Kings game to have a little nasty though? Even in preseason? If your answer was yes then you are correct. Jordan Nolan may be in a bit of hot water already and could have a suspension looming after what was described as a nasty shoulder-to-chin check on defenseman Rostislav Klesla. What ensued was a brawl, which included Bissonette leaving the Coyotes bench to get involved. As a result, Derek Morris, Jordan Nolan, and Dan Carcillo all recieved 10 minute misconducts and Bissonette an automatic game misconduct.
Klesla had to be taken off on a stretcher and last we heard he was not being taken to a hospital. I'm sure everyone wishes him the best, no one likes to see a player injured that badly. Would it be out of the question for the league to suspend Nolan if the hit was as bad as it sounds? I wish we had video...It's also my understanding that there was no replay being utilized in the building so this is going to be a tough one for the NHL to call.
One thing for sure that is going to add a little fuel to a Phoenix fire when the teams meet up in late October for the first time. Not that they needed anymore fuel after this:
Followed shortly thereafter by:
Practice is slated for tomorrow for both respective squads and first cuts normally happen shortly thereafter. Keep your eyes peeled for the latest!
It's a bird! It's a plane! No wait, it's just @SirJDL on twitter....oh......................oooh. 
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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