Todd McLellan answered several questions after the Kings' 5-2 loss, including questions about roster decisions, Alex Laferriere, Viktor Arvidsson and more.
Todd McLellan answered several questions after the Kings' 5-2 loss, including questions about roster decisions, Alex Laferriere, Viktor Arvidsson and more.
The Los Angeles Kings did not have an ideal start to the season, dropping their home opener against the Colorado Avalanche 5-2.
A big focus for several fans was the team's decision to keep Jordan Spence in Ontario to avoid sending either Tobias Bjornfot or Andreas Englund through waivers.
Fans were asking why it happened and Todd McLellan confirmed it was purely a waivers-related decision.
"Yes, yes, simple as that," said McLellan when asked if the decision to keep Spence in Ontario was because of his waiver-exemption. "You guys are all very smart, you can figure things out. We're short, we're dealing with cap issues, we're not prepared to risk losing depth. We've already lost one player, so the answer is yes."
A big takeaway from the game was the play of Alex Laferriere in his NHL debut. He looked very comfortable in his first game and even dropped the gloves.
Fans weren't the only ones impressed with Laferriere's game, McLellan was too.
"I'm going to talk about Alex's play first, because the fight was a byproduct of what was going on," said McLellan. "I thought he had a tremendous night, he looked like he had played in the league for a long time, that's pretty exciting for our organization and him. He fit two offensive players very well. Had really good instincts both offensively and defensively, had zero hesitation about putting him on the ice. The fight itself was a scrum, we all got involved, we took care of each other. Sometimes in those situations, there's a pair that comes out of it swinging and he happened to be the one doing it and he handled himself very well and it did give us some juice."
Laferriere has been the big surprise from camp and has made himself very difficult to send back down. However, when everyone is healthy it's hard to find a spot for him.
Fortunately for Laferriere, it sounds like the Kings won't be healthy in the near future and McLellan will fight for Laferriere to keep his spot.
"Arvy's not going to be back for a little while, so I'll break that news for you," said McLellan. "So, you can figure out from there, I'm going to be pounding on somebody's desk tomorrow to say, 'I really like the way Laf has played, I don't think he should be going there (to Ontario),' and we'll find a way to keep him. If the cap situation and everything else works out. He's earned the right to play again in my opinion."
Another young player who impressed McLellan was Quinton Byfield, who grabbed his first goal of the season late in the second period.
"We talked about one young player in Laf, the other young player who I thought had a really good night, maybe his best game as a King, was 55," said McLellan. "I thought he was all over the ice, he looked confident, he made great plays. Not only offensively, but defensively. Nice to see him score a goal for all the hard work he did, but I thought he had a really strong night and something to build on as he goes forward."
Despite a tough loss, McLellan saw positives and things to build on ahead of Saturday's game against the Carolina Hurricanes.