January 26 practice notes

Before getting down to the details and what to expect this evening, here were the groupings that the Kings skated in at today’s 2:00 p.m. practice at Toyota Sports Center:

Blue: Gaborik, Clifford, Shore, Toffoli, King, Carter
Green: Williams, Andreoff, Lewis, Brown, Stoll, Nolan
Red: Greene, McNabb, McBain, Muzzin, Martinez, Regehr
Goalies: Jones, Quick

-Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar were given the day off as they returned home from the All-Star Game festivities. “Thankfully we got out, because there teams were getting out this morning, and I bet they had trouble,” Darryl Sutter said about the snowstorm that wreaked havoc on the country’s travel network. “Anybody who was going east probably had lots of trouble.”

-Mike Richards remains in limbo prior to 9:00 a.m. PT Tuesday, at which point he will most likely either be claimed by another NHL team or assigned to AHL-Manchester. When speaking with reporters, Dean Lombardi indicated that he believes Richards will go to Manchester if he isn’t claimed, and that ECHL-Ontario was not a possibility. I’ll have players’ reaction to today’s news later this evening.

-Tyler Toffoli (mononucleosis) has been cleared for contact. He practiced today, and there’s a chance he could play Wednesday against Chicago. “It’s a good sign to be skating with the guys and taking contact,” Toffoli said. “We have one more skate until Wednesday, so we’ll see how it goes. I haven’t really talked to Chris Kingsley a whole lot. He told me I could skate and that got me excited enough.” Stay tuned; there’s a story coming.

-The Kings were honored today at the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Awards Luncheon. The team won the 2014 Outstanding Acheivement Award, while Bob Miller won best TV Play-by-Play (for the 10th time), Jim Fox won best TV Analyst for the second consecutive year (and fifth time in the last six years), Patrick O’Neal won the TV Pre/Post Game award for Kings Live for the second consecutive year, Nick Nickson was nominated for best Radio Talk Show for Kings talk and for best Radio Play by Play, and Daryl Evans was nominated for best Radio Analyst.

-More stories to come this evening.