Not much get-to-know-you time

First, a happy Boxing Day to all our friends in Canada and beyond. The Kings are back at it tonight, with a home game against the Phoenix Coyotes (a reminder that it’s a 7 p.m. start at Staples Center). It’s tough to imagine a less-ideal scenario than the one Darryl Sutter has walked into during his start with the Kings. He was hired on Tuesday, and had one day of practice before back-to-back games. Then there was the league-mandated two-day holiday break, then a game today, a practice/travel day tomorrow and games on Wednesday and Thursday. That means, essentially, that among his first 10 days on the job, Sutter will have been able to hold only two full practices (and that assumes he holds one tomorrow, before the flight to Chicago). That’s not ideal for a coach trying to turn around a team midseason, but Sutter said that not all is lost.

SUTTER: “It’s crazy. The teams are all so even in their Xs and Os, in that part of the game. That’s where the parity is in this league. It’s in that part of the game. But you have to find that little edge somehow, with different players, and I’m not so sure that’s done on the ice. I think a lot of that is done off the ice, to be quite honest. The schedule is what the schedule is. For everybody, especially out West here, practice time is limited and a lot of it is more (about) recovery. You look at our schedule in January, and it’s pretty fortunate. I think we have three sets where we have two days between games. Then you go to February and it’s crazy. So you’ve got to look at the big picture, too. As important as tonight is, you’ve always got to be thinking ahead. It also tells you the importance of having a lot of depth, which is important.’’