Kings’ road warriors try to rest up

After the Game 2 overtime victory, the Kings left New Jersey and touched down in Los Angeles right around 3:30 a.m. Pacific time this morning. Naturally, on a night with scheduled late-night travel, the game went to overtime. It usually works that way… Darryl Sutter opted to keep the players off the ice today, while the New Jersey Devils stayed home last night and then flew this morning, their first flight since before Game 7 of the first round against Florida (the Devils played Philadelphia in the second round and the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Kings were no different than any team in that situation, in that they prefer to get home as soon as possible. Today, Darryl Sutter talked about the late-night travel and how he felt his team has through it so far…

SUTTER: “It was a good flight. We tried to get out of there by midnight. We off the ground by 1:00, which with the three‑hour change, everybody was in bed by 4:30. … We looked at it once we saw the schedule. You try to make decisions on what would be best. So you have contingency plans, too, if you go through the second overtime or something. We had rooms at the airport. You get up early and go. I still think in the best interest of our team, because you’re used to it a little bit during the season, I still think it was better to get them home. Most of the guys get a couple hours sleep on the plane, then a lot of the guys didn’t have to come in today, they get up mid morning, good to go I think.’’

Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards didn’t put a lot of emphasis on the late-night travel and the process of getting ready to play again at 5 p.m. Pacific time tomorrow.

KOPITAR: “It’s the same for both teams. You have to come (West) eventually. We’re going to take some rest today and get it going tomorrow.’’

RICHARDS: “We got some pretty good sleep last night. I think the excitement of it just keeps you going.’’