OHL vs. Russia - a Super Series report from Tyler Toffoli

On Thursday night, game three of the six-game Super Series took place in Ottawa. It's an annual junior hockey showcase, featuring an All Star team from the three CHL junior leagues (WHL, OHL and QMJHL), each playing a pair of games against a Russian squad of similar aged players.

You can also think of it as a tune-up for the World Junior Championship (WJC) and/or a preview for the upcoming NHL Draft. Just don't make the mistake of thinking the games don't count. Russia won the series last November and went on to win gold at the WJC a few months later.

For the third year in a row, Tyler Toffoli - one of the Kings top rated prospects - participated with the OHL group. Going into the game this year though, something interesting happened.

"My trainer in Ottawa was organizing everything and when he received all the jerseys, the 'C' was on mine. He let me know, but I didn't really believe him at first," said Toffoli, always mindful of the many pranks being played within the world of hockey.

"A couple of equipment guys and other people said it was true. Then, after it came out on the OHL website, that's when everybody starting texting me."

As if being named Captain wasn't enough pressure, the game was also being played at his home arena in Ottawa.

Original King bookened his HOF career with Fox and Toffoli

A Killer goodbye (photo by: TotalPhoto.ca)

In October 1967, Brian Kilrea scored the first goal in Los Angeles Kings history.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003.

Make no mistake about it though, it had nothing to do with his time in the NHL, where he played a grand total of 26 games and scored three goals.

Killer, as he's affectionately known in hockey circles, has largely spent the past 35-plus years either behind the bench or in the front office of the Ottawa 67's, one of the OHL's most successful teams.

He began his coaching career in 1974-75 and three years later his roster included a short whippersnapper from Coniston, Ontario ...and knowing Foxy now, he probably had the best hair on the team, even back then.

Jim Fox honed his craft under the tutelage of Kilrea for three seasons, before being selected in the first round by the Kings in the 1980 NHL Draft.

When it was announced on Wednesday that Kilrea was stepping down from his day to day activities with the 67's, Fox was eager to speak out on the man who guided him early in his career.

DevCamp 2011: Pre-camp comments from Tyler Toffoli

Photo: V. Wutti, Blitzen Photography

Mark it down now. My pick for a Kings rookie to make the opening night roster is Tyler Toffoli.

Drafted by Los Angeles in the second round of last summer's NHL Draft, he exploded into the junior hockey headlines this season when he put up 57 goals and 108 points for the Ottawa 67s and ended up as the OHL scoring champion.

While some might think he'd be an obvious pick to join an offensively starved team like the Kings, remember he's only one year removed from his draft year. Not many kids that young can make the jump so early - not to mention the fact there are several players in Manchester who are probably ahead of him on the depth chart at this point (i.e. Andrei Loktionov, Corey Elkins, Bud Holloway, etc.). However, he appears to have all the skills.

So, will he do it? Is he ready?

The next step in his evaluation comes in just a few weeks when he joins dozens of other prospects at the Kings annual Development Camp.

He was a frequent guest on MayorsManor this season and he joins us again today to share some pre-camp comments...

MM: Let's start with Manchester. Any thoughts about your time there at the end of the season?

TT: Overall, it was a great experience in Manch. I went in just trying to take it all in and I had a lot of fun. It was good to meet everyone and spend time there.

MM: What have you been doing back home to stay in shape since the season ended?

Prospect Report: Tyler Toffoli Terrorizing OHL

Prior the 2010 NHL Draft in Los Angeles the Kings knew all about Tyler Toffoli.

The same guy who turned them on to Wayne Simmonds was Toffoli's junior hockey coach with the Ottawa 67's.

Thought to be a possible late first round pick, when he was still on the board midway through the second round they gladly gave Colorado a fourth round pick for the right to move up and take him. So far, it looks to have been a smart gamble.

Toffoli's having a fantastic year in the OHL - where he's leading the league in scoring (38g, 37a in 41 games), was named the Player of the Month for December and on Monday was named January's first Player of the Week (4g, 5a in three games). It was his second weekly honor, having won it in mid-November as well.

Oh yeah, he's currently riding a 23-game point streak too, which includes six-straight multi-point games.

For some reason, Canada felt they didn't have room for him on their team at the recent World Junior Championship. Go figure.

Throwback Thursdays - Interview w/ Brian Kilrea

Ottawa is a long way from Los Angeles.

Yet, the older you get, the more you realize the world we live in is actually a rather small place. The hockey world is even smaller.

On October 14, 1967 Brian Kilrea was one of about two dozen players that made up the inaugural L.A. Kings roster. On that specific night, he was skating on a line with Ted Irvine and Lowell MacDonald at the Long Beach Arena. Their new home - The Forum in Inglewood - wouldn't be ready for a few more months.

About 2,400 miles away in Ottawa, a 17-year old Terry Murray was just beginning his junior hockey career as a defenseman for the Ottawa 67s - as luck would have it, also an expansion team.

Later that night, Kilrea would forever become linked with the Kings, scoring the first goal in franchise history.

Today, the two men have switched teams. Murray is now the coach in Los Angeles and Kilrea is the General Manager back in Ottawa.  However, the path that has taken 'Killer' (as he's affectionately known) from the Kings of '67 to the front office of the 67s, was a road filled with many twists and turns.

A few years after requesting a demotion to the minor leagues during his first season with the Kings, he eventually moved on to a successful coaching career in the OHL - a job that saw him tend herd over teams that once included Jim Fox...and more recently, featured one of the Kings draft picks earlier this summer, Tyler Toffoli.

Along the way he won over 1,100 games behind the bench, led two teams to the Memorial Cup (1984 and 1999), won the OHL title three times, was a five-time OHL Coach of the Year and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003.

Not bad for a guy that only played 26 NHL games.

In the interview below we cover it all. From the first goal in Kings history to some of the players he's been associated with throughout his illustrious career.

MM: Take us back to October of '67.  The Kings are playing the Flyers and you score the first-ever goal for the team...

Teddy Irvine carried the puck down the left wing, they went into the corner - he and Lowell McDonald - and they were battling for the puck. They fed it to me in the slot and I got off a quick shot. I wouldn't say I picked my shot, but I one timed it and it found room to go in. That goal got us back in the game, after being down 2-0. We went on to win that game 4-2. I scored into the empty net with less than a minute to go also.

After the game, Jack Kent Cooke, our owner, came down to the locker room and was going around congratulating everybody for winning the first game. The trainer had already given me the puck from earlier. So, when he came to talk to me, I gave the puck to him. You would have thought I gave him a million dollars or a puck of gold. He was just delighted, smiling from ear to ear. He really treasured that memento, the first goal for the Los Angeles Kings.

Any off ice memories with your linemates or some of the other guys that first season in L.A.?