November 1 practice notes, Darryl Sutter quotes

-The Kings practiced at Toyota Sports Center Sunday morning before loading the plane and departing for a quick two-game trip that includes games in Chicago on Monday and St. Louis on Tuesday. As noted, both Derek Forbort (who was officially recalled on Sunday) and Christian Ehrhoff were on the ice with the team. It was a full practice, and while the team didn’t take part in actual line rushes, there were puck advancement exercises early in the skate in which players were grouped by line and pairing, and they indicated no changes from the lineup used Saturday afternoon against Nashville.

-Christian Ehrhoff is feeling “pretty good” but is dealing with a stiff neck after weathering Mike Ribeiro’s heavy hit in the second period yesterday. (Ribeiro was assessed a boarding minor on the play.) Ehrhoff deemed the hit “a check straight to the numbers” and “a dirty play.” A story will follow.

-Could we see Jhonas Enroth in one game of the back-to-back set? There’s a good chance of it. “When it’s a back-to-back, I usually hope to get one of the games, but we’ll see what happens,” Enroth said.

Darryl Sutter, on whether he likes longer road trip blocks in the schedule:
I think when we got our schedule last summer we had seen the long trips – actually, one was even one game longer. What’s our longest, seven? [Reporters: February.] It actually was, I believe it was one more game, so I don’t mind this trip. Back-to-back, close. Heck, we could fly there and bus it.

Sutter, on an observation that Christian Ehrhoff “seemed relieved”:
He should be fresh. He’s only played a few minutes in the last week, so he should be really good for the next two. [Reporter: He didn’t like the hit.] It’s part of the game. You get hit.

Sutter, on scoring coming primarily from one line:
Kopi’s been on the ice for a lot of goals, if you look at it. Whoever’s been on that line at five-on-five has scored one goal. But if you look at him, by himself, the number of three-on-threes that he was on the ice for, the four-on-four that he was on for, the power play that he was on for, his on-ice goals-for is good, but his wingers are clearly not up to par. I’ll just continue with it until somebody looks like they’re hot. I mean, it’s hard to believe we’re 10 games in and you’ve got guys with zero or one goals. Basically, it goes back back to what I said about you have to have a good foundation to win hockey games in this league, so better get it from different ways until some guys who are supposed to do. [Reporter: It does stand out that Kopi has no assists so far.] I still think he’ll get 40. [Reporter: It’s just weird because I don’t think I’ve ever seen that after 10 games.] It is. I’m sure if you looked in the last year, Kopi with injury – in fact, he had a tough start last year, too, if you look at it.

Sutter, on Matt Greene’s availability this trip:
I don’t know, did you ask the trainers? He’s on IR. Guys on IR don’t go on trips, normally. … I don’t know what purpose it was serve if he was not ready to play, and I’m honestly telling you that I haven’t been told that he is ready to play.