January 15 practice notes

Good afternoon from El Segundo, where the Kings wrapped up a lengthy practice that featured a heavy special teams focus. With some battle elements mixed in, nearly the entirety of today’s skate was devoted to power play and penalty killing situations.

Among the developments:

-There were line-type drills, but with two days between games, I’m going to hold off on reporting the alignment. Let’s talk lines tomorrow morning.

-Robyn Regehr (hand) is getting closer. “He’s better every day,” Darryl Sutter said. “That’s the only way I can put it.”

Sutter also noted that per the original projection, there were those who thought that the veteran defenseman would be playing by this point. It wasn’t a complaint or a showing of frustration, but simply an acknowledgement that projected lengths of absences don’t always work in lockstep with athletes’ bodies.

“I thought it’d be two weeks, and then sort of day-to-day after two weeks,” Sutter said. More on Regehr will come in today’s Sutter quotes, which will follow shortly.

-Tyler Toffoli (mononucleosis) continued to skate lightly on his own. He claims to be feeling fine, but with an enlarged spleen he’s not getting into any games or real practices anytime soon. It’s good to know that he’s not in discomfort or feeling any major side effects related to fatigue, but don’t expect him to vastly undercut the three-to-four-week absence associated with players who battle mono.

-Lots more to come throughout the day, including a conversation with Alec Martinez, an evaluation of Brayden McNabb’s play, and more coverage of Rob Blake’s jersey retirement. Thank you, as always, for reading.