Turcotte, AHL’s Ontario Reign are off to rough start
As the Kings and Ducks square off for their second and third meetings of the year, fans are getting a preview of five late-season showdowns, including four in a row, in one of the budding rivalries in the NHL.
What they won’t see is a nose-to-nose battle between two franchise cornerstones in the making.
“Those in-state games seem to take on just a little more hype, a little more intensity, and that’s why they’re called rivalry games. So, this series of games won’t be any different than it has been in the past,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said.
While there will be familiar matchups in the Freeway Faceoff miniseries this week — centers Ryan Getzlaf and Anze Kopitar have each played around 80 games in this rivalry between the regular season and seven 2014 playoff games — one that observers won’t see is a showcase of 2019 top draft picks and potential future U.S. Olympians.
The Ducks inserted center Trevor Zegras into the lineup on Monday for the seventh time this season, meaning the clock will begin ticking on his threeyear, entry-level contract.
The threshold is usually nine games, but it was reduced to seven because of the truncated 2021 schedule.
Zegras was selected ninth overall in 2019, four slots after the Kings selected another American center, Alex Turcotte. Both were known as playmakers with uncommon vision and supple hands.
Since then, Zegras has been a point-plus-pergame player at the NCAA and AHL levels. Statistically speaking, the former Boston University star has been the greatest offensive player in Team USA history at the World Junior Championships, following up a nine-point performance last year with a staggering point total of 18 en route to a gold medal this time around.
Turcotte helped power the U.S. to gold as well, upping his contribution to eight points in seven games this year from two in five games in 2020. At the NCAA level, he hovered around a point per game last season at Wisconsin, albeit with a minus-10 rating.
In the AHL, the excitement surrounding Turcotte, center Quinton Byfield (the No. 2 overall pick in 2020) and winger Arthur Kaliyev (one of the most prolific goal-scorers in recent junior hockey history) has not translated to team success.
Through 13 games, the Ontario Reign have been the worst team in the AHL by points percentage (a meager .154). Turcotte has one point in seven games thus far.
McLellan said he was too immersed in the parent club’s campaign to thoroughly evaluate individual players in Ontario, but that he was monitoring the Reign and the Kings’ top prospects.
“The record is, obviously, not where they want it to be, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t growth occurring,” McLellan said.
Quick out
The Kings have essentially rotated goalies this season but there is a good chance Cal Petersen will start both games against the Ducks this week after an upper-body injury held Quick out of Monday’s morning skate and the first game of the series.
“Day-to-day. He was banged up a little bit late in (Saturday’s) game,” McLellan said after the skate.
Quick collided with center Gabe Vilardi moments before the Kings capped their threegoal comeback with an overtime game-winner Saturday, though it was not entirely clear if that is when the injury occurred.