LA Kings World Juniors

Rumors began circling on Tuesday morning when Team USA head coach Nate Leaman’s Zoom call with the media did not start on time and was then canceled. First, there were “COVID issues inside the Swiss locker room”, then TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported that two USA players had tested positive for the virus, postponing the USA/Swiss game.

The IIHF later deemed it a forfeit for Team USA, marking their first “loss” ever to the Swiss in this tournament.

  • There were plenty of opinions on the forfeiture of this game, mostly questioning the decision, given Team USA has a roster chock-full of players ready to step in. Especially for two players that tested positive.

  • With the NHL opting not to send any of its players to Beijing for the Winter Olympics in February, Team USA is looking elsewhere for players to compete, including…LA Kings 2020 second-rounder Brock Faber:

  • Back on the LA Kings front, 2019 fifth overall pick Alex Turcotte made his highly anticipated debut against the Golden Knights.

  • Turcotte won the game’s opening faceoff and won his first three faceoffs. He finished with three shots on goal, 2 PIM, one blocked shot, one takeaway, 50% faceoff percentage, 12:08 TOI, and a -1 on the night.

“Tough game for the kid to play in,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan admitted after the game. “By the time he gathers his wits about him, it’s 5-1 or whatever it was and then you get into that situation, there’s half a night left and you’re a little bit anxious, you probably don’t want to make the next mistake and have it pile on, so you play a backed off game a little bit. Now, I thought Turc handled himself extremely well, we’ve seen improvements in his game and as he gets more confident, he’ll get more aggressive, his shift length will get a little bit longer, he won’t be afraid of making mistakes. He certainly wasn’t our problem tonight.”

  • Let’s see if there are any lineup changes in advance of Thursday’s scheduled game against Vancouver:

The LA Kings should look into reuniting Turcotte and Kaliyev

  • If you blinked in the first period, you might have missed four goals. Per NHL Public Relations – The Golden Knights and Kings also joined forces in accomplishment Tuesday, becoming the seventh set of teams since 2000-01 to score four goals in a span of 76 seconds or fewer.
  • Do you think Jonathan Marchessault likes playing the LA Kings? He had two goals in Tuesday’s contest and has six goals with 19 points in 26 career games against Los Angeles, the second-most points of any team he’s faced (Sharks).
  • Around the league, there were three games played on Tuesday; all of them had at least nine goals. The Sharks/Coyotes game had 14 goals, with the Sharks prevailing 8-7 in the shootout. Rust, anyone?
  • Former LA King Kale Clague and the Montreal Canadiens fell 5-4 in Tampa, but Clague notched his first NHL goal on this wicked slap shot. Good to see him put in a position to succeed.

  • A couple of OHL teams, including the Barrie Colts, have been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic. LA Kings 2021 eighth overall pick Brandt Clarke and the Colts will be idle well into the new year:

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