On tomorrow’s lineup against Anaheim:
We’ll play a lot of our young veterans, that Marty age group and Kinger age, all those guys. Just stick with our plan for guys who are a hundred percent. They kind of know the game’s they’re going to play
On whether veterans need fewer preseason games:
Depends on their training. We’ve really set camp up, again, because we played to the middle of June again. We’re looking more at it like the last seven-to-10 days of camp if every was – touch wood – healthy where we get closer to what we want. How many games they need? It’s changed so much over the years. Camp used to be a month, and you went and everybody played every game, so you’d train for a month. Now it’s different. It used to be the guys went to camp to get in shape. Now they come ready. I’m not going to bury them during camp. It’s changed a lot.
On injuries to Derek Stepan and Jordan Staal:
Hey, injuries are injuries. It’s a part of the game. It’s a contact sport. Those same injuries would’ve happened in December in March. That’s part of it. Just from a team standpoint, nothing bugs me more than guys getting hurt in practice or in training camp. You always think that you could do something different to prevent it. You know what, you would think about two injuries – touch wood – we had Brownie last year, and it basically affected his whole year, missed a month with a hamstring, and then this year so far, same drill, Andrew Bodnarchuk. It’s a small contact drill. You have to have contact before you play.
On this being his first regular, non-Olympic year schedule with the Kings:
Yep, changed the timing of it. This is a regular schedule, when you look at it. The way we used to go, everybody would always go back to the city they played in after labor day. That’s what happened this year.
On why there are fewer dynasties in the current era:
More teams, more parity, salary cap. You don’t even look at anything other than that. I mean, really, the league started fresh when they started a salary cap. The top teams, you can get beat out in the first round and still be a top team. It’s not about winning a championship. Everybody that makes it now is a legitimate championship team. It used to be teams limped in with 85 points, so there were more upsets. It’s a lot closer. I wouldn’t call anybody that gets in now an upset. You get beat in the first round, you’re a good hockey team. Heck, I said it in the San Jose series. Last year I thought the team that won that series was going to win the Stanley Cup.
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