While the madness that was the Olympic quarterfinals were taking place, the Los Angeles Kings returned to practice. During pratice, Artemi Panarin's potential line mates were revealed.
The Men's Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympics is nearing its end. Multiple members of the Los Angeles Kings are still fighting for the Gold Medal as we approach the semi-finals. Which means the NHL is gearing up for its inevitable return on February 25th.
With that, the Los Angeles Kings have returned to the ice for practice. Every healthy member of the Kings that is not currently competing in Milan was on the ice today after an extended break. Among them was a new face in Artemi Panarin and we saw a long awaited glimpse at his potential new line-mates.
As the silver and black hit the ice for practice all eyes were on newly acquired Artemi Panarin who made his first on-ice appearance as a member of the Los Angeles Kings. During practice Panarin was skating on the left wing with Alex Laferriere at center and Taylor Ward on the right side.
Important to note that Taylor Ward was skating as a place holder for Adrain Kempe who was overseas competing with now eliminated Team Sweden.
So it's currently expected that Panarin will start off playing with Laferriere and Kempe.
Kempe and Laferriere have played on a line together at different points of the season and have showed chemistry and a good amount of promise. Adding an all-world offensive threat should give them a major boost, and could potentially add to each players confidence if things work out.
When the Kings acquired the former all-star it was fully expected that the Kings would at the very least experiment the Kempe/Panarin duo. They are both wingers who play on their offside. Panarin enjoys playing LW as a right-hand shot, while Kempe plays RW as a left-hand shot.
"I know what he likes……he likes a left-hand shot playing his off-side, he makes a lot of cross-ice passes, I understood that. The conversation was an easy one. Then, I looked at what teammates probably fit him best and as it turns out, Kempe is an off-handed shooter that plays on his off side. Seems to be, at least, pretty natural and we’ll see how the chemistry goes."
With Anze Kopitar set to retire, the Kings are in desperate need of center help starting next season, and experimenting with Laferierre a the face-off dot. Even if he doesn't work out as Panarin and Kempe's center, it is still incredibly beneficial to give the young forward a chance to gain experience with two terrific offensive threats.
Jim Hiller also expressed his reasoning for placing Laf at center and says him and Panarin have already showed some chemistry on the ice.
Laf is a right shot and on your forehand, it’s an easier pass, so as a right shot, it’s most natural to pass it to your left, Panarin is going to be on his left, so that is part of the equation. I thought, actually, they had some chemistry today already, I think it looks to be pretty easy to have chemistry with Panarin. He makes a lot of good offensive plays, they had some pretty good plays going.
Exciting times in Los Angeles as we are officially in the Artemi Panarin era of the franchise. Let's see how the Breadman thrives in his new threads.
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