Home hasn’t been very sweet to Kings

One of the biggest general mysteries about the Kings, in the past couple seasons, has been a less-than-stellar home record. The Kings are10-8-2 at Staples Center this season, not counting the two season-opening “home’’ game in Europe. Every other team in the top eight in the Western Conference is at least five games over .500 at home, and in the conference, only Colorado (10), Anaheim (10) and Columbus (12) have more regulation home losses than the Kings. Again, this is nothing particularly new. Last season, the Kings won only four more games at home than they did on the road. Darryl Sutter brings a new perspective to the situation, and today he was asked whether he saw anything particular that would suggest why the Kings haven’t played as well as other teams at home. Sutter cited, in part, the fact that the Kings hold morning skates at the practice rink in El Segundo, not at Staples Center, mostly for logistical reasons.

SUTTER: “It’s a big adjustment for young players, quite honest, playing in this environment. It’s very simple. A big part of the preparation part of it is managing game day. It’s simple. It’s a different routine than most, than 95 percent of NHL teams. We don’t practice, game day, at the big rink. It has everything to do with what’s going on here. It’s a big adjustment for young players. (As a coach) you have only so much control over them, in terms of getting them ready on game day at home. So you have to put a little more responsibility on the player. When you look at it, that, for me, the home record is the one thing I’ve got to drive home here. Because it is an area that we can get better. I know that. So, I can help them with that.

“We have to play well at home now, because we’ve played more home games than road games, and February is going to go the other way. It’s pretty significant the other way. So, before you can be a consistent, good road team, over a period of time, you need to be able to take what you do well at home, with confidence, on the road. So it’s almost double the responsibility, and accountability, on the players’ part. We, as a coaching staff, have to do a better job of helping them deal with it.’’