December 22 morning skate notes

Good morning from El Segundo, where we’re waiting for Darryl Sutter to join us and share thoughts on tonight’s Kings-Flames game.

All active players took the ice for the morning skate, which contained line rushes. The alignment:

Gaborik – Kopitar – Carter
Brown – Stoll – Williams
Pearson – Lewis – Toffoli
Clifford – Richards – King
Andreoff – Nolan

Muzzin – Doughty
Martinez – Greene
McNabb – McBain
Schultz

-Jonathan Quick left the ice first, while Martin Jones remained on the ice to work with Andy Andreoff, Jordan Nolan and Jeff Schultz. Expect Quick to start, Jones to back up, and Andreoff, Nolan and Schultz to serve as tonight’s scratches.

-Marian Gaborik is fine after a scare on Saturday when he weathered a heavy hit carrying the puck into the zone shortly before Trevor Lewis’ goal. “He just kind of of got the right side of my head,” Gaborik said. “I didn’t see him at all.” Gaborik will carry a four-game goal scoring streak – as part of six total goals – into tonight’s game.

-The Flames have lost eight in a row, though they earned their first point of the streak in a 3-2 overtime loss in Vancouver on Saturday. While that game was scoreless in the first period, they did this:

-Anze Kopitar claimed the NHL’s First Star of the Week, and now Manchester Monarchs forward Brian O’Neill gets honored by the AHL:

-Lots more to come on a busy Monday. For updates from Calgary’s morning skate, follow Wes Gilbertson on Twitter.

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