This morning’s practice at the Toyota Sports Center had more of the look of a morning skate as the coaching staff met with players, “got a little sweat on,” as Darryl Sutter said, and boarded the flight for Chicago. For the third consecutive practice, the team was breaking in its forum blue-and-gold equipment in advance of donning the vintage jerseys next Saturday afternoon against Colorado.
What was learned from Saturday’s skate:
-Darryl Sutter sees a disadvantage of being in the Pacific time zone when it comes to traveling east on road trips, compared to teams that travel from east to west. He also sarcastically referred to the irregular start times on this trip – 2:30 local time in Chicago; 8:00 local time in Edmonton and Calgary – as being “really good”. There will be some good commentary from Sutter coming shortly.
-Jonathan Bernier can’t remember the last time he started three games in a row. “Probably Manch”, he said, referring the AHL. Because there’s no morning skate on Sunday, we’re unlikely to find out who starts in net for the Kings until the team comes out of the tunnel for warmups at the United Center Sunday afternoon.
-Trevor Lewis likes the mix of his line with Dustin Penner and Jarret Stoll. No lineup changes are expected for Sunday’s game.
Quotes from practice will be posted shortly.
Penner is playing a bit with Carter and Williams. Clifford was skating with Stoll and Lewis on his goal as well as today at practice. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that change for tomorrow.
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goldielocks Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 11:59 am
@Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com),
I’m just so glad Cliffy took a shot, not passing it to Lewis.
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bbb7 Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:01 pm
@goldielocks, Agreed. If he did pass it, they’d probably be doing the 1177th round of the shootout right about now.
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Michael J. Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:01 pm
@goldielocks,
“Please don’t hit it to Sax” -Tommy Lasorda
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neil Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:26 pm
@Michael J., LOL…fans were wearing helmets in the seats behind first….
jet Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 3:37 pm
@Michael J., fans were parking on the third base side of the stadium
Kenny44 Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:03 pm
@goldielocks, so was Lewis. He was using his stick to point at the trailer, rather than load up for a shot.
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tornado12 Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 2:08 pm
@goldielocks, Or to stoll the trailer
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phil sykes Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
@goldielocks, yea lewis cant score ……….. but perhaps the kings braintrust have completely forgotten that in a penalty shot /shootout situation he has that sweet move to the forehand which i have not yet seen one goalie even come close to stopping
are u paying attention kings …….. lewis in the shootout and instruct him to use that forehand move until the league catches on …….. it could get us some valuable points
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Michael J. Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:00 pm
@Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com),
Clifford is going to provide that spark and energy to whatever line he is on. The issue might be getting Penner up with Williams and Carter-two guys that can benefit from his play more than Strollsy and Lewis.
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Kenny44 Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:02 pm
@Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com),
Worried about the Richards King Nolan line against Chicago if Richards and King don’t step it up and get that low roll going
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Mars Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:07 pm
@Kenny44, Maybe they should toss cliffy there, he has some strong effort, more so I am hoping he could pull the line up a notch.
Brown needs to get back to his normal hitting to get everyone going. I saw Kopi hitting more than Brown, that really made me think about it more.
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Kenny44 Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:11 pm
@Mars,
Agree about Brown. Puzzling. Perhaps too many frappes at the rink in Europe?
The thing about Cliffy is that his game is so honest and simple that he can be that “third guy” with any pair to give the line a jump. Sorry @Harty, that’s a fact. But it’s also a compliment to the kid. As he develops, maybe he becomes part of the pair rather than a third guy (Clifford plus Pearson?)
Robyn Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
@Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com), I think DS was saying yesterday that Clifford was playing on two or three lines so wherever he starts at, mid-game it could very well change.
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KC23 Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 1:50 pm
@Robyn, bingo.
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Just watched the highlights of the Monarchs game,man Toffoli is a big sniper, he’s got a great shot and great hands.Colton Yellowhorn looks great, just wish he was a little bigger.
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Gcheng Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 5:52 pm
@LVKINGS88, where can we watch the highlights
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Toffoli will be playing on the Kings next year. Bank on it.
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KingsGRT Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 1:59 pm
@KC23, good it will force brownie back onto the left where for whatever reason he is at least capable of laying a check or being present for a game.
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