A special guest, and back to practice

Darryl Sutter had a special guest at his postgame media scrum: his granddaughter, Mackenzie. It was a big family trip for Sutter. As noted in my feature yesterday, Sutter and family on Tuesday night celebrated the birthday of Chris Sutter, Darryl’s son. A few family members were on hand in Calgary on Wednesday, and as much as Darryl Sutter tries to downplay it, beating the Flames is a big deal to him.

The Kings will be back at practice in Edmonton today. Sutter gave the players a “recovery day’’ on Tuesday — no practice — and they responded with a good effort Wednesday. Today’s practice doesn’t figure to be intensive, but with three games in four days coming up, the coaching staff no doubt wants to review a few things. Anze Kopitar said the day off had helped the team, mentally and physically.

KOPITAR: “You do clear your mind a little bit when you don’t have to come to the rink and be around here all the time. Even though you hang out with the guys, for the most part anyways, it’s just nice to get a little breather and to stay in your room and relax, watch TV shows or whatever the case may be. But everybody knew. Everybody’s mindset was into (the) game, that we had to perform. Darryl has given us a lot of days off, and recovery days. He gives us the rest and we appreciate that, and we’ve got to come out strong and play like we did (against Calgary).’’