The Los Angeles Kings on Saturday had to make a change to their lines after Trevor Moore was not able to play due to an injury. Head coach Jim Hiller elected to replace Moore on that top line with Alex Turcotte and the results the past two games have been excellent.
In those games, Turcotte has two goals and one assist while the line collectively has been equally as productive. Adrian Kempe also has two goals and one assist while Anze Kopitar has three assists.
Even the analytics tells a story that might be too much for Hiller to deny. According to MoneyPuck, the line of Alex Turcotte-Anze Kopitar-Adrian Kempe have the second-best xGoals For Per 60 Minutes of any line the Kings have put together this season at 3.44 behind only Kevin Fiala-Phillip Danault-Alex Laferriere.
Los Angeles Kings need to keep giving Alex Turcotte this time on ice even after Trevor Moore returns
It is never a great situation for a player to lose their spot due to an injury but the Los Angeles Kings have certainly found something with this line. These past two games are the only two this season that Turcotte has played more than 16 minutes in a game and prior to this, his season-high is 15:23 against the Vegas Golden Knight on October 22nd.
The Los Angeles Kings have struggled to find a permanent option at left wing to play with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe. It has been a seemingly revolving door of players like Alex Laferriere, Quinton Byfield, and Warren Foegele to name a few.
However, Alex Turcotte has been the best of all of them. While it has been a somewhat small sample size of only two games, the results warrant the coaching staff to keep this together for at least the remainder of the road trip to see if these results continue.