Should deadline day be game-free?

Six days from now, the Kings will be in Nashville, and likely will be settling back into the team hotel after the morning skate. What will their emotions be? The trade deadline will just have passed, and if history is any indication, it will go down to the wire to determine what the Kings will do. Rick Nash? A couple secondary scorers? Nothing? No matter what, there will be a lot of attention and potential for distraction. Then, just a few hours later, the Kings will play the Nashville Predators. Darryl Sutter doesn’t like it. The Kings are far from alone, given that four other games will be played Monday, but Sutter would like to see teams get a day to regroup. Sutter, of course, experienced the other side of things, as general manager of the Calgary Flames for four years.

SUTTER: “It’s hard to believe that, on the trade-deadline day, you’ve got to play games. How can you not have one day? It’s really unfair to players, coaches. It’s really not fair to anybody. Sometimes there’s nothing better, but usually there’s nothing worse than being traded. … There’s a grace period, where your roster opens up and you have extra players and all that stuff, so how do you do it on that day, when you’re playing? You could have a 40-man roster, but you can’t have what you want.’’