LOS ANGELES — The Kings got two forwards back on Saturday but those gains didn’t last through the weekend. On Sunday, winger Viktor Arvidsson and forward Gabe Vilardi were placed on the COVID-19 protocol-related absence list, the team confirmed.
No additional details were provided through a followup with the team, and neither player competed in Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
Arvidsson took line rushes on Sunday but shortly before the puck dropped he was listed as a scratch. So, too, was Vilardi, but that seemed less conspicuous given that he had been a healthy scratch in Saturday’s 5-2 victory over Montreal.
Acquired via trade this offseason, Arvidsson had found a home on the Kings’ top line and top power-play unit. He accumulated five points in eight games this season.
A promising junior talent, Vilardi was a first-round pick of the Kings in 2017 and played his first full campaign with the club last season. In seven games this season he had one point, a goal, as he continued to struggle with consistency whether playing center or wing.
On Saturday, the Kings won for the first time in seven games, aided partially by the return of forward Lias Andersson from injury and that of winger Brendan Lemieux, who had also been a COVID protocol-related absence.
The Kings faced the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, who had just played in San Jose against the Sharks. Seven Sharks players, including defenseman Erik Karlsson, and their head coach, Bob Boughner, all entered protocol over the weekend. That situation remains fluid, as at least one other player felt ill and the eight individuals who are in protocol, as well as their teammates, will all undergo further testing.
Montreal, thus far, has escaped the consequences of contact, though absence-related woes were many before the season, let alone the past week of games, got underway. They have been without their captain Shea Weber and franchise goalie Carey Price all year.
The Kings had also already been battered by injuries. In the preseason, they lost Andersson and winger Andreas Athanasiou. Even more significantly, they saw their top prospect Quinton Byfield sidelined indefinitely by a broken ankle.
On their first road trip of the season, they lost top defenseman Drew Doughty for two months to a bone bruise in Dallas and, two games later, defenseman Sean Walker sustained a grisly knee injury of his own in St. Louis that will take him off the ice for the rest of the season.