Matt Roy Excited to be Back in Action

Following Sunday’s intra-team game in Ontario, LA Kings D-man Matt Roy spoke about being back in action and the excitement of moving forward.

In an effort to solidify their future, the LA Kings wasted little time in giving contract extensions to those they will hope will help bring the silver-and-black back to the Promised Land, so to speak. Among those is, most recently, goaltender Cal Petersen in addition to Trevor Moore, Alex Iafallo, and defenseman Matt Roy.

The latter is just one of a very deep defensive corps for the LA Kings and, like the rest of his teammates, is just excited to be back in action — especially at his old stomping grounds: Ontario’s Toyota Arena.

“It was fun,” Roy beamed about being back at Toyota Arena. “We’ve always had a good crowd here and it’s nice to play in front of some fans after so long. So, the guys were excited to come out here and it didn’t disappoint.”

Toyota Arena, of course, was the site for Sunday’s Kings vs. Kings matchup. For Roy, though, while he has enjoyed training camp thus far, he has felt extra motivated for some in-game action.

“I think the atmosphere helps, playing in a big arena like we do normally,” noted the Detroit native. “Like I said before, the fans really helped us out getting some energy and just kind of having more of a gameday routine kind of helped us out, so we were looking forward to it.”

In his second full season with the Kings, Roy excelled.

In 44 games for the big club last season, Roy was solid defensively while adding a pair of goals and eight assists along the way. Among his defensive partners was Tobias Bjornfot who really got his proverbial feet wet at the NHL level in 2020-21, scoring a goal and five assists in 33 games. From a defensive standpoint, Bjornfot made his share of mistakes but was better for the experience nonetheless. Much of this was thanks to the chemistry the young Swede had with Roy.

“Me and Toby last year were just getting kind of familiarized with each other but I think we grew a lot together last year and tried to build off that right away this year,” Roy observed. “So, he’s working hard and just trying to earn a spot in the lineup.”

One evident change for Bjornfot entering the new season will be a new jersey number. When Viktor Arvidsson was acquired from Nashville this past offseason, Bjornfot gave his No. 33 to the new King and switched to No. 7. It will take some time to adjust but for Roy, getting familiar with his teammate’s new number is a small price to pay.

“I think I got used to it right now,” he added with a smirk.

As for the aforementioned players who received extensions, the 26-year-old D-man is excited to be with this group for the foreseeable future.

“Starting together and being the guys to kind of make it out and be the guys that are leaned on moving forward, we take it seriously and it’s fun to come up together,” Roy stressed. “We’ve had those friendships for a while now, so it’s fun to continue that.”

While he didn’t take part in the Kings’ preseason debut on Monday vs. Arizona, Matt Roy was in the lineup on Tuesday against San Jose.

Collectively, the excitement for the 2021-22 season is very palpable, and Matt Roy is a big reason for that. So, let us stay tuned for more as we prepare for a brand new season and, for Roy, let’s see how he can follow up his successful sophomore campaign.