The next generation's Hextall is making an impact

The first hit of Wednesday's rookie game between the Kings' prospects and their Phoenix Coyotes counterparts was thrown by a kid with a familiar name on the back of his jersey: Hextall.

That the Phoenix forward always seemed to be getting a piece of someone and also scored his team’s last two goals in an 8-7 comeback victory testified to the power of genetics.

Brett Hextall, a sixth-round pick by the Coyotes in the 2008 draft, is the son of Kings assistant general manager Ron Hextall. His dad was watching from above as Brett, a 5-foot-10 forward who played three seasons at North Dakota, put the Coyotes ahead, 7-6, and scored again off a scramble during a power play.

Those two goals matched the two his father, a goaltender renowned for his puck-handling ability, scored during his own outstanding career.

“These games don’t count,” Ron Hextall, apparently intent on keeping the family goal-scoring title, said by email.

Brett spent many summers in Southern California after his father joined the Kings’ front office in 2006 and has visited the Toyota Sports Center many times. That made it easy for him to picture where his father was Wednesday.

“I knew where he was sitting because they have that corner where the management sits, but I didn’t let myself look up there,” Brett said of the upstairs perch his dad occupied. “He sent me a text today that said, ‘Don’t make me look stupid.’”

Kings' Ron Hextall mourns death of Brad McCrimmon

News of the plane crash that took the lives of nearly the entire Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team and its coaches left Ron Hextall so stunned that he could barely speak.

But the Kings' assistant general manager was determined to talk so he could convey his respect and admiration for Brad McCrimmon, his longtime Philadelphia Flyers teammate who had taken a job coaching Lokomotiv this season and was among the victims.

“When I heard about it, I didn’t know what to say. My first reaction was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” Hextall said Wednesday.

“When I think of teammates I had over the years and great teammates, Brad McCrimmon is at the top of the list. Any athlete wants to be remembered as a good teammate. He truly was.”

Hextall and McCrimmon played on some outstanding Flyers teams in the 1980s, though they never won the Stanley Cup. McCrimmon, nicknamed “Beast” for his fearless physicality and ability to play 30-plus minutes per game, was usually paired with Mark Howe in a formidable defense tandem.