Kings head coach Darryl Sutter seems to be ahead in that game. After all, in Wednesday night’s series opener at the Prudential Center, he doled out the most ice time his fourth line has seen on a single night so far in these playoffs.
For the first time this spring, rookie Jordan Nolan and linemates Colin Fraser and Brad Richardson each saw 11-plus minutes of action. Only once in the previous three rounds had each of the fourth-liners’ ice time broken into double-digit minutes.
The nominal bottom-feeders on the L.A. depth chart set the right tone during a shift near the halfway mark of Wednesday’s first period. In a span of five seconds, Nolan sandwiched a hit on Devils defenseman Andy Greene with a pair of takeaways.
The second of those takeaways was used to set up Fraser from behind the net for the evening and series icebreaker, giving the Kings a 1-0 edge at the 9:56 mark. As the defensive duel continued for the better part of the night, Fraser’s strike held the visitors up through regulation before top gun Anze Kopitar polished off a 2-1 victory in overtime.
As it happened, Nolan’s takeaways constituted half of only four credited to a Los Angeles player on Wednesday. In addition, he tied Kopitar and fellow rookie Slava Voynov for third on the team with four hits on the night, trailing only Matt Greene and Jarret Stoll (five apiece).
This is coming a little less than four months after Nolan made his NHL debut in a Feb. 11 visit to the New York Islanders. He is barely three months removed from being permanently promoted from the AHL&rsqu...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Kings
