Kings enjoy open practice at Rod Laver Arena ahead of Global Series

MELBOURNE, Australia -- The Los Angeles Kings held an open practice at Rod Laver Arena on Friday, but the Arizona Coyotes open practice was canceled afterward to maintain optimal game conditions for Saturday.

The Coyotes practiced at O'Brien Icehouse, a local rink where both teams skated earlier in the week, and then coach Andre Tourigny and forwards Lawson Crouse, Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz skated at Rod Laver Arena.

"Congrats to the crew of the NHL," Tourigny said. "They did good work to make sure the ice will be at NHL standard tomorrow."

The Kings and Coyotes will play two preseason games at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday and Sunday in the 2023 NHL Global Series -- Melbourne, the first NHL event in the Southern Hemisphere.

The games will start at 12 a.m. ET and air on NHL Network and ESPN+ in the United States; Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ in Canada; and 9Go, 9Now, ESPN and the ESPN App in Australia.

Music played while the Kings practiced, and fans sat in the lower bowl from about blue line to blue line on each side of the rink.

"I thought our group had some good energy today, and that was the environment, or the atmosphere, that was created by the music, the fans that were here," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "I do believe the players are sensing that a game is coming, so it changes a little bit. We've been here a while, so it's time to play."

The players noticed the crowd and looked forward to Saturday.

"I was actually pretty pleasantly surprised with how many people were out here and how many LA Kings jerseys you saw," Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. "You saw some other teams' jerseys too.

"So the support right off the bat is great, and I hope a lot of Australian people that don't know about hockey come to watch the game or [watch it on TV], because hockey's a great sport. It's very entertaining, and if you can watch it live, it's even better. So we'd love to turn a bunch of Australians into hockey fans."

Tourigny said the Coyotes are ready to play.

"I feel really good," he said. "I liked the pace of our practice today. I think the focus was there. If you look at our week, I think we had three really good practices in terms of focus. We had one that was not as good in terms of focus but was really intense still, so the intensity was there all the way through, the mental intensity was.

"I think we've progressed well. Happy about what happened here."