Series schedule raises travel question

The day after a playoff schedule is released in this era of television-driven program slots and start times, it’s practically a given that Darryl Sutter will weigh in on the league’s arrangements.

Following today’s morning skate, a question was raised of whether the Kings planned on traveling back to Los Angeles in the two-day window between Games 3 and 4 at HP Pavilion.

The question allowed Sutter to highlight the inconsistencies of the start times within the series, calling to attention the odd six o’clock start time on Saturday night in San Jose – and that he’d prefer to focus on concerns larger than raising the question to his team so early into the series.

“I really haven’t looked that far ahead,” Sutter said. “I mean, the plane’s available. Whatever. It’s a six o’clock game. I haven’t really thought about it yet. Wait and talk to the players, see what they want. I don’t think I should be talking to the players when we just got the schedule this morning. I should be talking to the players about what we’re doing between Games 3 and 4 when we’ve played one game once tonight. Saturday or Sunday or Monday or Tuesday, OK? That’s easy to figure that one out. And then six o’clock Saturday or noon Sunday or seven Monday or 7:30 Tuesday. Well, that’s not hard to figure out, either. Right? I thought the most important part of the playoffs was for the athletes to perform at the highest level they can, not to accommodate everything and everybody else. [Reporter: It never used to be like that.] It’s supposed to be about the players.”

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