Who doesn’t love a midweek hockey game filled with mystery and intrigue?
Coming off a weekend sweep of the defending Calder Cup champions, head coach Andrew Lord will lead his Reign squad into Henderson on Wednesday night, looking to avenge Ontario’s lone regulation loss of the young season.
It couldn’t have gone much better up in Abbotsford — two games, two convincing 5-2 wins. Now holding a 4-1-1 record on the season, things are about to get plenty interesting when it comes to Lord’s lineup choices.
For starters, he has goalie Pheonix Copley back in the fold. The veteran netminder earned a win last Friday and should be in line for another start soon. However, the Reign don’t have a back-to-back until this coming weekend in San Jose. In theory, that should allow Erik Portillo to get the start tonight, and give him a shot at earning his first win of the season against the Silver Knights. It wasn’t that he played poorly in their initial matchup a few weeks ago — Portillo came out of that game stopping 23-of-25 shots (.920 save percentage) — he just didn’t skate away with a win.
There’s also the matter at forward. Jacob Doty sat out the last game to make way for Kings prospect Koehn Ziemmer. Did he do enough to remain on the fourth line for another game or will Lord want some added toughness to help patrol the ice in Henderson?
Even more curious will be what Ontario’s bench boss does on the blueline. Defenseman Angus Booth is expected to make his season debut tonight. Where will they play him; or more specifically, with who, that’s the key question. An argument could be made for every one of the six guys who played last time out. From adding size to the blueline (Dvorak and Bolduc), being a steadying presence (Kirsanov), to offering a rare right-shot option (Salin), there’s no easy choice.
One thing is clear, though. Even as a rookie last season, Booth was arguably Ontario’s most reliable defenseman in his own zone. His absence late in the regular season — and particularly during the playoffs — was evident. After a productive offseason of training, Booth was sidelined once again, this time due to a knee injury.
The 21-year-old Kings prospect was knocking on the door of an NHL callup prior last March and will be looking to return to a similar status as quickly as possible. We’ll assume he’ll slide onto the second pairing tonight, with a TBD partner that won’t be officially revealed until pregame warmups.
Few players had a bigger impact over the weekend than Taylor Ward, who tallied three goals and two assists in the sweep. After Sunday’s game, Lord had high praise for the forward: “He’s been rock solid in all three zones. He’s great along the walls, defends well, and his shot is lethal.”
Forward Francesco Pinelli found the back of the net Sunday afternoon, notching his second goal of the season. Kirsanov also recorded the assist — one of two on the day — marking his first two points in North America.
Additional Pregame Notes
— With Warren Foegele’s recent injury, the Kings could be looking to recall a forward soon. Which Reign player may get the nod? We broke down the situation here.
— Unfortunately, big forward Kaleb Lawrence is going to miss a month or two with an injury. Originally a seventh-round draft pick by LA in 2022, the London Knights product has continued to work on his craft at the pro level. Standing 6-foot-6 without skates, he really found his footing in the AHL late last season after splitting time with Ontario and ECHL Greenville earlier in the year.
— Today’s contest marks the third game in a stretch where the Reign will play nine of 11 away from their home arena in Ontario.
What You May Have Missed
This Week’s Kings Prospect Tracker — Looking at all the top performances LINK
Kings Of The Podcast, Ep. 235 with Andrew Lord, New Reign Head Coach LINK
Reign Projected Lineup vs. Silver Knights
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Ward – Gawdin – Chromiak
Pinelli – Thomas – Guttman
Lee – Connors – Wright
Jamsen – Hughes – Ziemmer
Hicketts – Millar
Booth – Bolduc
Kirsanov – Dvorak
Portillo
Copley
Likely scratches: (F) Doty and (D) Rego, Salin
Injured: Brown, Lawrence, Parker-Jones
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm Pacific Time and will be streamed via FloSports. Additionally, a Reign radio feed is available here.
Follow @mayorNHL
Continue reading...