Joe Hicketts relishes chance to play for Kings against Kraken
The Los Angeles Kings are close to being 100% healthy at the forward position, but they might need to patch together a defense when they host the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night.
Mikey Anderson sustained an upper-body injury when he was hit by Jordan Martinook on his first shift against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, resulting in a boarding penalty. Anderson returned for a few shifts, but then left for good midway through the opening period.
Anderson did not practice on Tuesday and neither did fellow defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who used a maintenance day, prompting the Kings to recall Joe Hicketts from the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League.
Hicketts, who's listed at 5-foot-8, 180 pounds, hasn't played in an NHL regular-season game since the 2019-20 season with the Detroit Red Wings.
"It's exciting, I think anytime you get that opportunity, something that you dream of and the fact that it came this long since the last one, it was special for me," Hicketts said. "When you still get those butterflies, you know you've made the right decision. I'm excited to come in and try to help this team get a couple wins."
Kings coach Jim Hiller has known the 29-year-old Hicketts since he was a 16-year-old coming through the Western Hockey League.
"I followed his career, he came to Detroit, played quite a few games in the NHL, so he's somebody with good experience," Hiller said. "Had he been 6-foot-1, you would have known his name, he'd be a household name in the NHL, but he stayed with it. Great teammate and somebody that, in a pitch, is going to be able to help us out."
Hiller had more praise for veteran forward Corey Perry, who fought Martinook at the start of the second period on Sunday in response to his hit on Anderson.
"Just going to say it over and over again, he's a hockey player and I say that with the highest compliment," Hiller said. "He just knows the game. He knows how to be a teammate, he knows how to score goals, he knows what's right and what's needed in the moment. He's had an amazing career so far and he's got more left."
The Kraken are coming off a 4-2 loss at the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night that ended a four-game winning streak. It also dropped Seattle from third place in the Pacific Division to the second wild-card spot from the West.
"You win four in a row, you lose one, you're out of the playoffs," Jordan Eberle said. "We've been playing playoff hockey for the last month. Every game is just that important, especially against a division team. They just jumped ahead of us, so that's the mindset that we had and we have to continue having. It's going to be the same way all the way through the rest of the year."
Capped by the four-game winning streak, the Kraken went 10-5-2 in January to get them back into the playoff race.
"We've been playing, in my opinion, playoff hockey for the last month here," Eberle said. "Every game, every point, is huge. This is another one that was massive (Tuesday) night and (Wednesday) we have another massive one."