EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — The Los Angeles Kings practiced Friday for the first time since defenseman Jake Muzzin was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Following their mandatory five-day break after 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend, the Kings were preparing to play the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, KCOP-13, NHL.TV), the first of a season-high six-game road trip. They had four days to process the Muzzin trade, but for defenseman Drew Doughty, the situation presents a scary reality for Los Angeles (20-26-4), which is last in the Western Conference, 30th in the NHL and on a cloudy road to the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. ET.
“It’s more real,” Doughty said of the impact of seeing his former defense partner traded. “It’s weird and it [stinks]. We’re going to miss him a lot, but when your team’s [lousy] and you’re near or the bottom of the League, that’s what happens: Your good players get traded.
“But this gives an opportunity for these young guys to get a chance to step up and for some other guys to take some leadership roles on. No one wanted it to happen, but now that it’s happened, we have to move on and move forward.”
Doughty had 26-year-old Derek Forbort with him on the first pair during practice, and 27-year-old Oscar Fantenberg took Muzzin’s place to the right of Alec Martinez on the second pair. Coach Willie Desjardins also anticipates giving more playing time to Paul LaDue, a 26-year-old averaging 11:04 of ice time in 15 games.
“As soon as it occurs, then you move on to what we can do to find ways to win,” Desjardins said. “It’s not like guys haven’t played. They’re just going to have to play more minutes.”
Video: Pearson, Muzzin trades are just the beginning for LA
The Kings are eight points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference after going 3-1-1 in their past five games and 8-6-2 in their past 16. That was part of Desjardins’ message before practice: The odds of making the playoffs may be long, but not impossible.
“It’s not that we’ve been playing bad, but I said not anybody in our room thinks that’s the best we can play,” Desjardins said. “We all feel we have more, so saying that, it’s how could we get more? If there’s more there, we have to get it.”
They’ll have to get it without Muzzin and possibly others who could be traded prior to the deadline. General manager Rob Blake said Monday they’re looking at more trades that could improve the future of the organization.
Los Angeles got forward Carl Grundstrom, the rights to defenseman prospect Sean Durzi and a first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft for Muzzin. Grundstrom was assigned to Ontario of the American Hockey League.
While the Kings are ready to turn the page, Muzzin likely will get another shot at the Cup with the Maple Leafs (30-17-2), who are second in the Atlantic Division.
“[Blake] looked at individually who he might possibly trade, and you knew that he was probably going to trade our top guys,” said Doughty, who played on a pair with Muzzin when the Kings won the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons in 2014. “[Muzzin] was probably the guy we would get the most for, that’s just the bottom line. If I was him, you have to look at the bright side. He might win a Stanley Cup over there and you’re a god for life in Canada.”
Muzzin played 496 games with the Kings from 2010-19 but was not part of their Cup-winning team in 2012. The 29-year-old had 213 points (51 goals, 162 assists) and a plus-24 rating for Los Angeles.
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