From the cheap seats Saturday night things could not have gone better for the Kings. The Kings just dominated the Colorado Avalanche, beating them 4-0, in front of a wild, enthusiastic, sold-out crowd at the MGM.
Like most things in Vegas the end of the weekend brought confusion and sobering news.
Dwight King is injured, McBain is on waivers, it doesn’t look like Muzzin and Greene will be ready to start the year in the lineup and someone stole my wallet and lost a ton of money playing blackjack. That last part isn’t completely true but Dwight King being hurt shakes things up a lot of things and I am not nearly as good at cards as I thought I was.
Add this to the story of why we love hockey players: Apparently Dwight King got hit by a shot in the 1st period, sucked it up and played the entire game (a pretty damn solid game), added an assist, all while playing with an apparent foot injury. “Kinger’s going to be out for an extended period of time,” Darryl Sutter said. “Blocked a shot, first period. Hit with a shot, so he’s out.” King was last seen sporting crutches and a boot on his foot.
I would look for Andy Andreoff, who has performed well this pre-season, to get some ice time if we see King out for an extended period of time. No word on the lines but today at practice Trevor Lewis skated with the 3rd line. This also could mean that Jordan Weal, who recently changed his number to 19 will have an opportunity to see some time on the 3rd line with Brown and Shore.
McBain being put on waivers is pretty surprising. It becomes even more of a direction change when Derek Forbert and Jeff Schultz are still with the big club. Forbert does not have to clear waivers to be assigned to Manchester while both McBain and Shultz do.
Forbert, a 2010 first round pick (15th overall), made the news again when he joined a few other expected opening day Kings in some changing of the numbers. Forbert switched from number 84 to number 7, a move that has to have you believing that he thinks he will be starting the year with the big club. In other number switching news, Christian Ehrhoff changed from 44 to the number vacated by Mike Richards – 10 and Nick Shore will now be wearing number 21.
So to recap:
Dwight King is injured..
Muzzin (thumb) and Greener (upper-body) will probably start the year on the injured list.
Jamie McBain is on waivers along with forward Michael Mersch, goaltender J-F Berube and defenseman Vincent LoVerde. Forbert and Schultz are not.
Christian Ehrhoff switching his number to 10 brought about two thoughts: 1. This will bring mass confusion when people think Mike Richards is still playing and 2 – I know now exactly who Ehrhoff reminded me of – former LA power play specialist Mathew Schneider.
See you Wednesday night in the cheap seats!
Your friendly neighborhood Kings scribbler… JD Dorfman
PuckTheDucks 