I got up bright up and early on Saturday to get a first glimpse of future and hopefully present L.A. Kings. The morning was divided half the time with drills. The remaining half was a scrimmage with Bernier and Zatkoff playing the first half of the scrimmage and Rowat and Martin Jones who is a try-out candidate playing the last half.
The Morning Drills:
I have no idea if this was a preview of possible line combinations or not but the forwards were dressed with each line wearing a separate color with the exception of Justin Azevedo who was always used as a fourth forward in mustard yellow gear. He was very forgettable. The defensemen all dressed in black. Here is how the lines played out:
Line Gray:Wayne Simmonds Trevor Lewis Scott Parse
Line Purple:Dwight King Bryan Cameron Andrei Loktionov
Line White:Richard Clune David Meckler Marc-Andre Cliche
Line Green:Geordie Wudrick Bud Holloway Matt Filler
Line Red: Vladimir Dravecky Oscar Moller Trevor Lewis
Defensemen: Thomas Hickey, Davis Drewiske, Alec Martinez, Josh Kidd, Mike D’Orazio, Colton Teubert, Drew Doughty, Andrew Campbell
Murray and his assistants had very short huddles, diagramed the plays quickly with drills that followed shortly thereafter. There was also a fair amount of audibles with the players while they were executing each one.
The various drills included:
• 4 men drills with 2 forwards rushing the opposing net from the opposite blue line with 2 defensemen trailing the play and keeping the play in the offensive zone;
• 5 on 5 drills with only 10 players participating at a time;
• 5 players surrounding their own net while the other 5 go on offense;
• 3 man rushes against 2 rushing the opposite net.
Scrimmage:
The scrimmage consisted of play 5 on 5 and 4 on 4 with Bernier and Zatkoff on net. Then it was 3 on 3 with Rowat and Jones in net and then back to 4 on 4. For the scrimmage, there was Team Black and Team Purple who were divided as follows:
Team Purple: Olivier Legault, David Drewiske, Andrei Loktionov, Richard Clune, Josh Kidd, Vlatcheslav Voynov, Bryan Cameron, David Meckler, Marc-Andre Cliche, Thomas Hickey, Georgie Wudrick.
Team Black: Wayne Simmonds, Drew Doughty, Matt Fillier, Colton Teubert, Trevor Lewis, Oscar Moller, Bud Holloway, Scott Parse, Vladimir Dravecky.
My notes are less than exact so there are two players whose team colors I missed, that being Mike D’Orazio, Dwight King. Justin Azevedo did not participate in the scrimmage.
I saw strong first attempts at the net but few second efforts for rebounds. Also notable, others there may know better but I saw no goals scored during the scrimmage. Here are some highlights:
• Doughty and Teubert were paired together and made a strong duo.
• Doughty has a great set of wheels and could leave the defensive zone and take the lead in turning the play to an opposite rush;
• Teubert laid out some nice hip checks. A nice surprise is that I also saw him shooting regularly not just being strong physically;
• Hickey has some deceptive speed and great feet. He wasn’t the biggest defensemen out there but he played bigger than his size by using his skill to gain possession. One minute you see nothing and the next he is making something happen.
• The Russians drafted this year, Loktionov and Voynov made a presence. They found and/or made openings and took the play over from there. I cannot be more specific but to say that like Hickey, one minute you see the play going one way and a scant second later they were making something happen;
• David Drewiske did a nice job of clearing the crease one play;
• Vladimir Dravesky tried to make a play by using another forechecking player as a screen and shooting tweeters;
• Mike D’Orazio had a take-away from Oscar Moller;
• Moller could do great things on offense but was not as strong on the puck and maintaining possession when another player made a better defensive play;
• Later, it was Bryan Cameron taking the puck away from Mike D’Orazio;
• Andrew Loktionov tried a take-away from D’Orazio but D’Orazio maintained puck possession;
• Later on, Doughy had a truly sweet moment when he used his stick to catch the puck from mid-air (think baseball and you get the idea), controls it when it hits the ice and creates an offensive opportunity out of near nothing the other way;
• Teubert stripped the puck from another, maintained possession despite someone hanging on him like a cheap suit and crashed the net;
• Hickey stripped the puck from Moller;
• Richard Clune didn’t score but showed strength on the puck and made a break-away opportunity. Even better than that, in a truly tenacious move, he crashed the net, took a shot and went flying in the air and crashed akin to the hockey version of a belly flop (ouch);
• Alex Martinez was nearly invisible in both the drills and the scrimmage;
All and all, it was an impressive first day to me from Doughty, Teubert, Hickey and Clune. Moller did not appear NHL ready until he is stronger on the puck and defensively. I expected more from Martinez. The Russian two were the biggest surprise to me because they would come out of nowhere and make something happen.
Stay tuned for Day Two…
Carla Muller Carla.hockeygal@att.net 
Carla Muller
Rookie Training Camp Day One 
