November 29 practice notes; McNabb skates

Good afternoon from El Segundo, Insiders. Let’s get down to brass tacks.

Today’s alignment:

Yellow: King-Kopitar-Lewis
Blue: Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
Green: Brown-Dowd-Setoguchi
Purple: Gaborik-Shore-Nolan
Red: Clifford-Andreoff-Purcell

-In other words, there were no changes in forward lines (or, for that matter, defensive pairings). The team took the ice prior to 10:00 a.m. and stayed on for the better part of an hour. Because of yesterday’s day off, there were a good amount of skating and transition drills that segued into 3-on-0 rushes and finally concluded with some around-the-net battle and compete work. For a skate that followed a recovery day, it was a mostly typical practice.

-So, what do you know: Brayden McNabb (collarbone) took the ice right as the stragglers were coming back into the dressing room. McNabb said that he had recently been working out and that today was the first time he was able to get on the ice. His schedule hasn’t really changed, though Darryl Sutter did say that he “didn’t expect him to skate for another week, at least.” The defender suffered his injury one month ago today when Colton Parayko fell on him following a battle in the left wing corner in the offensive zone during a 1-0 loss at St. Louis. “He’s at least a month away,” Darryl Sutter said. “He’s still in the healing part of it.”

-After some Darryl Sutter quotes, I’ll post a story on Teddy Purcell, who has two assists in 12 games and has been a healthy scratch in the last two. One question I asked him is if the Kings are asking him to play any different way than how he played in Tampa Bay, Edmonton or Florida. He answered: “those teams haven’t won in the past X number of years and they have here, so they have their philosophy and obviously it works, so I’ve just got to try to do better at it and gain their trust.” In addition to several particulars about his play, he also mentioned confidence as an area that he’s looking to build up.

-Tomorrow’s opponent is San Jose. The Sharks face the Coyotes at the SAP Center tonight, and Martin Jones is getting the nod. Might Los Angeles see Aaron Dell (who has stopped 95 of the 102 shots he’s faced this season) at Staples Center? Let’s talk tomorrow.