The Reign embarked on three games in three nights from Friday through Saturday. Well, actually, it was three games in two and a half days as Sunday's game was a matinee to close out the busy weekend at CBB.
The team went 2-1-0 on the weekend, which any coach would tell you is a strong stretch given the circumstances. It was a dominant 5-0 Friday night performance against a depleted San Diego, closed out by a high paced 2-1 victory against the high flying Texas Stars. Sandwiched in between the wins was a tough loss to the Bakersfield Condors.
The Reign got a boost ahead of the weekend set as Michael Mersch was returned to Ontario on Thursday and suited up for all three games over the weekend. There was some noteworthy rotation of players during the weekend as Coach Stothers attempted to keep everyone fresh for only the second "3 in 3" of 2015-16. Also notable, we got to see the inoft used Michael Houser in for Peter Budaj in the third game of the weekend against Texas.
As it currently stands, the Reign are 21-10-2-1 in their 34 games played and still sit up at the top of the Pacific division in the AHL Western Conference. Much like the NHL team, this team prides itself on a heavy transition game, and defense first hockey.
Let's go through and update the weekend that was for the prospects of the LA Kings and the players of the Ontario Reign.
Nic Dowd
The center has been on an unreal stretch for the Reign. He had goals in all three games, and four on the weekend. He now has 10 points in 8 January games (6g 4a) and has nine points in his last six games. He remains one of the more standout performers on the season for Ontario. His faceoff ability is heavily relied upon, as noted by JFTC reporter Sheng Peng in his recap.
Brodzinski to Dowd goal pic.twitter.com/a3x8Q3cvGa
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 16, 2016He is has proven to be one of the best transitional forwards on the team, which was on full display against the heavy forechecking Texas Stars on Sunday.
Michael Mersch
Mersch returned to the Reign for the first time since December 6th. He had one assist on the weekend but played a very appealing brand of route one hockey. Everything was to the net, and corner battles were of the highest priority. There was some noticeable trouble on his zone entry game when he tried to carry the puck, but other than that it was a very noticeable and positive weekend for Mersch. He could have easily hung his head on his recent send down, but was instead back to what got him noticed in the first place.
Vincent LoVerde
A great weekend for the Reign rearguard. With five points on the weekend he jumps up to third on the team in scoring. While he does not do any one thing exceptionally well, LoVerde is consistent factor in the Reign success. Rarely does he have a noticeably bad game.
Zach Leslie
With Kurtis MacDermid serving his 12-game suspension, Leslie has received consistent playing time for the first time on the season. While his initial games were touch and go, he has settled in nicely and looked more consistent overall. While there are still hiccups in his decisions on ice, they are fewer and far between than they were in his opening games during the MacDermid suspension stint. It will be interesting to see how Stothers opts to use Leslie, Ebert, and MacDermid when all three are available. Ebert is currently out injured with no available return date known, while MacDermid has three more games left to serve for his hit on San Diego's Matt Bailey.
Valentin Zykov
Zykov continues to be up and down, which is relatively expected for an AHL rookie. He picked up his first point since December 31st in Friday's tussle with San Diego, however, he did not have a particularly active game overall. The Friday night game was heavy on special teams, and Zykov is not a regular member of either the powerplay or penalty kill. He was sat in favor of Joel Lowry on Saturday, and slotted back in on Sunday in favor of Johnny Brodzinski. Stothers noted in post game that it was simply to give guys a night off during the 3-in-3 stretch, and not related to performance. He is a buzzy forward with a good possession game, however he can still try to do too much with the puck at times. The consistency has yet to really hit stride for him in 2015-16.
Jordan Samuels-Thomas
Not a Kings prospect, but he continues to be an intriguing power forward on the Reign bottom lines. Formerly of the Buffalo Sabres system, JST was signed on a PTO by the Reign after starting the year with the Monarchs. He had a delightful double on Friday night, one of which was shorthanded. He has been one of Stothers primary penalty killed forwards, paired up with Andrew Crescenzi. The duo remain a formidable shot blocking pair, which led to one of the quotes of the weekend (Which we will get to later on.). Stothers told media members last week that he and the coaching staff had challenged JST recently, and that he had responded exactly the way they had hoped.
Adrian Kempe
Kempe was held pointless on the weekend, but every scout you talk to at the games is absolutely enamored with his skating ability. He simply has NHL level skating. Also noticed over the weekend, Kempe has a bit of a mean streak to him. While still not the most physical of players overall, there is an edge to him that can be seen on scrums and battles in front. This bodes well for his NHL future, as the Kings like to have a bit of that "Edge" to their players.
Derek Forbort
Forbort also displayed a little bit of mean-ness over the weekend. He dropped the gloves with San Diego's Nick Ritchie on Friday, and followed it up with a wrestling match bout with Mitch Moroz of Bakersfield on Saturday. Other than that it was a pretty low event weekend for the recently sent down defenseman. That is not a bad thing by any means. He looked comfortable.
Justin Auger
Auger, who has had a pretty good offensive outburst kind of season, picked up an assist on what was a fairly quiet weekend. Auger has had to deal with being the player shifted around most frequently with players coming in and out of the lineup. He was slotted up with on loan center Derek Army for most of the weekend.
He also had one of the most angry fights you will see with Mitch Moroz of Bakersfield on Saturday. The two sparred prior to this and traded jabs with the stick before being sent off for roughing. The next chance they got the gloves were dropped, and yelling ensued.
Andrew Crescenzi
Cresc, like JST, remains one of the more prominent defensive specialists with the Reign. He has also proven to be pretty capable on the draw. While there is not much in the way of offense, he comes up big on defensive stops and penalty kill heavy games. He got a rare chance to play on the powerplay late in Sunday night's contest against Texas, and ironically potted the game winner with 22 seconds left. It was his third goal of the season.
Crescenzi was obtained by the Kings back in 2014 for Brandon Kozun.
Jonny Brodzinski
Brodzinski had a strong game on Friday night, with a wonderful assist and scoring play orchestrated with Nic Dowd (See above). His had some issues on Saturday night with Bakersfield extremely heavy board play, and was a healthy scratch on Sunday night for Valentin Zykov. Getting Brodzinski to shoot more has been a goal of the Reign coaching staff this season, and he is starting to do it more and more. Nevertheless, it is still a notable work in progress.
Kevin Gravel He got the lion's share of minutes alongside of Derek Forbort. Even though the pairing is not of the left/right balance variety, Gravel has shifted back over to what looks to be a more comfortable side of the ice on the left side. He was formerly paired up with Kevin Raine, and played on the right side. With a little bit more comfort, Gravel was noticeably more aggressive and jumped into the play with more regularity. He had his hands full on Saturday night with a big bodied, well structured and well executed attack minded Bakersfield team. He remains, at least in the eyes of this Kings writer, the most NHL ready defensive prospect the Kings have. Alex Lintuniemi
Has been spotted with regularity around the rink in his recovery from wrist surgery. Word is he has been skating and doing more stick work but remains a little ways away from game action. He will likely be sent back to the ECHL when he is healthy due to the log jam defensemen with the Reign.
Quote of the Weekend
When talking with Jordan Samuels-Thomas after Friday's game, the subject of shot blocking and penalty kill time came up. Here is what was said:
What's the approach and what's the mentality you take in making yourself a more effective shot blocker?
In college it's not something I did much. I hadn't really done much PK either. But at this level I want to be someone the coach can rely on and put on the ice (For PK) at the end of games. You have to do that, you have to pay the price, blocking shots is one of those things. I don't put too much thought into it, I honestly just appreciate the opportunity the organization is giving me and the coaches are giving me to go out and PK because that's no small thing. That's extra ice time and I want that ice time so I'm going to put my face in front of it if I have to.
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