LOS ANGELES — Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke knew his solo lap was coming from the moment he learned he would play his first NHL game and started letting his family and friends know. It is the lap in which teammates send that player out to the ice first and all alone for the warm-up skate before they join him.
It is now common for that player to take the lap without his helmet. Clarke knew that could be a possibility. The 19-year-old doesn’t have real long hair but there was enough of his blond mane to move in the breeze created as he skated Thursday night. His Kings teammates wouldn’t let him hide his flow.
“I had put on my jersey, and I was reaching up for my gear,” Clarke said. “My gloves were up there (on a shelf) and the guys were yelling across the room, ‘Don’t even think about it. Don’t even try.’ I didn’t put it on.”
The lap that every NHL hopeful wishes to skate is now burned into his mind.
“I just felt like it took forever to be honest with you,” he said. “Probably to you guys, it’s like 10 seconds. To me, it felt like five minutes. I was just out there with all those eyes on me. I think I didn’t stop smiling for like five minutes into warm-up.
“It was a good feeling. I saw my parents right away. I looked up to where they were sitting. They were there with smiles on their faces and their phones out and stuff like that. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
The young defenseman became the 14th player to make his NHL debut under coach Todd McLellan’s four seasons leading Los Angeles.
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