‘Yotes Notes: Rookies lose in lackluster effort against Kings

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Mark Lamb had his first game opportunity to coach some of the Coyotes prospects he’ll be guiding as head coach of the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners. He wasn’t pleased with what he saw.

“I probably disliked more than I liked,” Lamb said after the Kings rookies beat the Coyotes rookies, 3-1, on Tuesday at Gila River Arena. “We didn’t have lot of energy in the game, physicality wasn’t there, our puck play … a lot of the stuff that we did this week, it didn’t translate into the game.”

Center Christian Dvorak had the lone Coyotes goal midway through the second period when he came off the right circle in the Kings’ zone and got past forward Austin Wagner before lifting a wrist shot under the crossbar to tie the game at 1-1. Matt Luff, Sam Herr and Jonny Brodzinski scored for the Kings.

Lamb said the healthy rookies who did not play Tuesday will play Wednesday.

MERKLEY SITS

Right wing Nick Merkley didn’t play in Tuesday’s game and he won’t play in Wednesday’s game either as he works his way back from surgery to repair a torn ACL suffered in February while finishing a check for Kelowna against Spokane in the Western Hockey League.

GM John Chayka has said the Coyotes will be cautious with Merkley.

Merkley was also injured early in training camp last season and hasn’t had the opportunity to show the coaching and managements staffs what he can do. He will participate in the team’s training camp, which opens Friday, and he is hoping to get in some games during the preseason to make an impression.

LANGHAMER GOES DISTANCE

Goalie Marek Langhamer played all 60 minutes in Tuesday’s game, allowing three goals against the Kings. Langhamer, one of the team’s two seventh-round choices (284th overall) in 2012, is slated to open the season with the team’s ECHL affiliate in Rapid City, South Dakota.

“I’ve been really pleased with Marek,” Coyotes goalie coach Jon Elkin said. “I think he’s been playing with poise, he’s moving well, he’s sound positionally and he’s keeping it real simple.”

Elkin said Langhamer has implemented much of the offseason agenda the Coyotes staff gave him.

“We were talking about his depth,” Elkin said. “All last year he was very aggressive. Sometimes that can work in juniors but not in the NHL. If you get caught out in the white ice too often, pucks get behind you.

“There were some other items like just staying square and tracking the puck a little better, too.”

Lamb said Adin Hill, the team’s top goaltending prospect, would start Wednesday’s 2 p.m. game against the Kings and also play the entire game. Hill was the team’s second, third-round choice (76th overall) in 2015.

Last season during rookie camp, the Coyotes split games between goalies, but Lamb opted against that strategy.

“It’s hard to split up goalies in those situations,” he said. “The way hockey goes, sometimes if you split them up you might have the power play the whole half game and the other goalie doesn’t get a lot so it’s good to give him the whole 60 minutes; get him the full body of work.”

WORLD CUP UPDATE

— Team Europe advanced to the semifinals of the World Cup of Hockey by virtue of Team USA’s 4-2 loss to Canada. That means restricted free-agent forward Tobias Rieder will keep playing for Europe at least into the weekend without a new Coyotes contract. Europe will play Canada for first place in Group A on Wednesday, and then play a semifinal game on Saturday or Sunday.

— Team Sweden, with Arizona defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, faces Team North America with coach Dave Tippett as an assistant on Wednesday, with a chance for Sweden to clinch the top seed in Group B.

— The Czech Republic cannot advance to the semifinals and will play its final game Thursday against Russia, freeing Coyotes Martin Hanzal and Zbynek Michalek to return to training camp.

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