4 takeaways from Los Angeles Kings first game in the Rookie Faceoff

Kaleb Lawrence and John Parker-Jones don't shy away from a fight

One of the biggest players on the ice is Kaleb Lawrence who is 6'6" and 225 pounds and was one of the players I highlighted to watch out for. He doesn't have much offensive prowess but brings physicality and Lawrence did just that in the first period.

After Angus Booth took a big hit near the red line from Golden Knights' Samuel Mayer, Lawrence decided it was time to drop the gloves in defense of his teammate. Lawrence would end up getting an extra penalty for instigating but his teammates probably appreciated him sticking up for them in that instance.

Then in the second period, it was John Parker-Jones turn to drop the gloves and he is the only player bigger than Lawrence at 6'7" and 230 pounds. As much as the offense struggled, the one thing they didn't lack Friday night was physicality.

Offense struggles early on for the LA Kings

This isn't overly surprising but should be noted that the offense did struggle early on before finding some flow to their game late. The reason this isn't that surprising is that the Kings haven't had much practice time together prior to this game. In the first period, the offense turned the puck over a little too much, which was one reason for the early breakaways Portillo faced.

The good news is that as the game went along, the offense seemed to settle down more and had some decent chances towards the end. They would finish with 25 shots in total but 10 of them came in the third period.