Well, the Kings aren’t the only ones finding themselves in British Columbia for the next few days. Their AHL brethren are in Abbotsford — about an hour southeast of Vancouver — for a pair of back-to-back games, beginning Tuesday night.
Reign coach Marco Sturm has also received a rather large gift upon his arrival in Canada. Sammy Helenius has been assigned to Ontario after spending the past month or so on the NHL roster. In addition to his 21 games with the Kings this season, Helenius has also suited up for the eight contests with the Reign.
One interesting thing to keep an eye on tonight is where Helenius draws back into the lineup. His typical running mate, Andre Lee, has been playing up on the second line since rejoining the Reign himself earlier this month. Conversely, Tyler Madden has been playing down on the fourth line of late, after typically being a middle-six winger. Thus, the below configuration is more a guestimate than an actual projection. We’ll have to wait until warmups for a clearer look at how Sturm plans to put things together vs. the Canucks.
In goal, Ontario’s bench boss opted to go with Pheonix Copley for the first game of last weekend’s pair at home. We’re assuming he’ll do the same tonight.
The two clubs have met only once prior this season, resulting in an 8-4 victory for Ontario at Toyota Arena. After this week’s set of games, they’ll play one final time in mid-April; that will serve as the regular season finally for Sturm and his squad.
REIGN PROJECTED LINEUP vs. CANUCKS
If there are any key changes during pregame warm-ups, this article will be updated.
Hudon – Gawdin – Malott
Madden – Studnicka – Fagemo
Chromiak – Pinelli – Ward
Lee – Helenius – Doty
Hicketts – Millar
Booth – Walsh
Dvorak – Jones
Copley
Portillo
Other roster options include: (F) Jamsen, Singleton and (D) Krygier, Rowe
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm Pacific Time and the game can be viewed on FloHockey. An audio only feed is also available on the ESPN LA app.
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