Rob Scuderi’s wife, Courtney, gave birth yesterday to a son, Brett William Scuderi, who weighed in at 8 pounds, 7 ounces (without hockey gear). It’s the third child and second son for the Scuderis. On the ice, the Kings will start the Darryl Sutter era with a 10:30 a.m. practice today in El Segundo.

The only pertinent question about the Kings’ hiring of Darryl Sutter is, “Will it work?’’ Sutter is a proven quantity, a veteran NHL coach with a track record, and that can either be seen as a positive or a negative. He has enjoyed success at each of his three coaching stops, including a run to [...]

Some notes from last night’s game… – The Kings ended their road trip, and the four-game interim-coaching tenure of John Stevens, with a win as they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in a shootout on Monday night at Air Canada Centre. – The Kings finished their road trip with a 2-2-0 record under Stevens. [...]

Toronto fans were upset — and, according to video replays — that Drew Doughty was not whistled for being offside on the play that led to Dustin Brown’s second-period goal. Maple Leafs fans might hold onto that for a while. There’s a segment of them that still hasn’t gotten beyond Kerry Fraser’s no-call in the [...]

The Kings have officially announced the hiring of Darryl Sutter as their new coach. As noted yesterday, Sutter will coach tomorrow’s practice, starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo. Afterward, Sutter will be introduced by general manager Dean Lombardi at a 1 p.m. press conference, which will be streamed live [...]

It’s hard to say whether there was more relief or excitement among the Kings after Dustin Brown’s shootout-winning goal. Teammates swarmed Brown and followed him around the ice to give him playful pats and hits, and there was some joy in the locker room as well. What was the key aspect of the Kings’ shootout [...]

The Kings will not practice tomorrow, as they have their scheduled family Christmas party. The Kings are expected to officially announce the hiring of Darryl Sutter as coach sometime tomorrow. Sutter is expected to run Wednesday’s practice, scheduled for a 10:30 a.m. start, and then the Kings will have an introductory press conference with Sutter [...]

John Stevens’ postgame thoughts… (on the win…) STEVENS: “It is very satisfying, not just the fact that we won, but we felt like we played very well in doing so. We had some really good things going on in the offensive zone. We had some long stretches where we held onto the puck and had [...]

Justin Williams’ postgame thoughts… (on his goal…) WILLIAMS: “Crazy carom. You’ve still got to make the shot and make it count. I feel like our line, over the last couple games, has played well and we’ve worked for our chances offensively, so it’s nice to get kind of a gift there in front of the [...]

Drew Doughty’s postgame thoughts… (on getting the two points after playing so well…) DOUGHTY: “It was huge. It kind of sucked that they scored that goal to tie it up late, but we were pushing back. We needed that win. We needed that two points. Brownie did a great job with a great shot in [...]

Dustin Brown’s postgame thoughts… (on the win…) BROWN: “It’s important that we got two points. For everyone in (the locker room), it’s been a long road trip, not only with the travel but with everything that has gone on. We’re going home 2-2, and whatever happens with the coach, you probably know more than I [...]

For anyone still wondering about this morning’s Bob Miller trivia question, Darryl Sutter will be the 19th Kings coach he has covered, following Pulford, Stewart, Berry, MacDonald, Perry, Vachon, Neilson, Quinn, Murphy, Ftorek, Webster, Melrose, Robinson, Andy Murray, Torchetti, Crawford, Terry Murray and Stevens. Bob and Jim Fox will be at work tonight on Fox [...]

This is the only meeting of the season between the Kings and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and it’s the Kings’ first game in Canada this season. After this morning’s skate, Toronto coach Ron Wilson held what had to be the shortest press conference in history — less than two minutes — in which he faced [...]

Last night, general manager Dean Lombardi and other management members made the hour-long trip from Toronto to Oshawa to watch two Kings prospects in a junior game between Ottawa (with Tyler Toffoli) and Oshawa (with Andy Andreoff). Ottawa won 5-3, and Toffoli had one goal while Andreoff did not have a point. Andreoff, a third-round [...]

Want to know how to score goals? Ask a defenseman. As a big-minute, stay-at-home defenseman, Willie Mitchell is regularly charged — both at even strength and on the penalty kill — with doing the difficult work of shutting down the opposing team’s top forwards. So, who better than Mitchell to talk about what works and [...]

The road trip, and the interim coaching tenure of John Stevens, comes to an end tonight in Toronto. Yesterday in practice, the Kings did a 2-on-2 drill, split into two teams. After practice, the team bus diverted to a nearby Dairy Queen, and the losing team bought treats for the winners. It was a nice [...]

As noted earlier, the Kings need a win for a split on the four-game road trip, and it won’t be easy tonight against Toronto. Like the Kings, the Maple Leafs have been stewing since a disappointing 5-3 loss to Vancouver on Saturday night, and in general, they’re looking to get back on track. After a [...]

The long, winding, strange road ends today in Toronto. The Kings need a win tonight to salvage a split on the four-game road trip and then, perhaps, on the long flight home they’ll have time to contemplate what has taken place in the past week and what is ahead. Terry Murray’s coaching run is in [...]

Trent Hunter, Alec Martinez and Slava Voynov are expected to be the Kings’ healthy scratches tonight, meaning Willie Mitchell will return and Andrei Loktionov will replace Hunter. Mike Richards practiced today in a no-contact jersey. Not surprisingly, there’s a swarm of Toronto media asking about the coaching change and the impending arrival of Darryl Sutter. [...]

Here’s a trivia question, to start the morning. Bob Miller has been the Kings play-by-play voice since 1973. When Darryl Sutter takes over this week, how many different head coaches will Bob have worked alongside? (Note: this includes interim coaches such as Rogie Vachon and John Stevens.) As you ponder that over oatmeal, here’s the [...]