January 20 practice notes

Good morning from the skies above Southern California. We’re expecting a flight of just under four and a half hours between LAX and Newark as the team heads east for games against the Islanders, Rangers, Devils and Hurricanes. Speaking of hurricanes, the rain was still coming down while we boarded our charter flight.

LAX EWR

A photo posted by Jon Rosen (@rambleonrosen) on Jan 20, 2017 at 9:52am PST

The team took the ice shortly before 8:30 a.m. and aligned as such up front:

Yellow: King-Kopitar-Gaborik
Blue: Pearson-Carter-Brown
Green: Andreoff-Dowd-Lewis
Purple: Clifford-Shore-Nolan-Setoguchi

-With Thursday serving as a recovery day, the team got a lot of work in. There were in-zone one-and-one, two-on-two and three-on-three drills that featured some battle elements, followed by up-ice transition and odd-man rush work. “Trying to get our clocks on eastern time and just get some stuff in,” Darryl Sutter said. “We don’t get much practice on this whole trip, so we’re trying to get three or four drills that apply to some system things.” Tyler Toffoli did not skate with the main group. While he may travel with the team, don’t expect him to get into any of these four games before the All-Star Break.

-Drew Doughty spoke about battling for a playoff spot amidst a heavy contingent of Eastern Conference games upcoming. “We weren’t too happy obviously with what we’ve done at home lately, so now we’ve got to go on this road trip. Obviously we’re focusing on the first game, but at the same time being determined to try to win every single game,” he said. “Like you said, we’re battling for a spot right now. We’re going to be pedaling right to the end of the season because of the spot we’ve put ourselves in, so it’s time to get on some rolls. I know we’ve been saying that for a long time, but there’s no more waiting around. Everyone needs to step up their game and as a team we need to step up our game, too, obviously.” There’s more to come from Doughty, Anze Kopitar and Darryl Sutter about this upcoming stretch of games.”

-Via the NHL, John Legend, Robin Thicke and John Ondrasik will perform at the NHL100 event one week from today. Via the release: “Academy Award and 10-time Grammy winner John Legend, and Grammy-nominated recording artists Robin Thicke and John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting will join host Jon Hamm, 2017 NHL® All-Star players and famous hockey fans for THE NHL100™ presented by GEICO, a star-studded event in which the entire collection of the 100 Greatest NHL® Players will be unveiled. Billed as the largest gathering ever of hockey legends, THE NHL100 presented by GEICO will be broadcast live from Microsoft Theater on Friday, Jan. 27, at 6:30 p.m. PT / 9:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN in the U.S. and Sportsnet and TVAS in Canada. Tickets to the event are available at AXS.com. During THE NHL100 presented by GEICO, Thicke – in honor of his father, the late Alan Thicke – will present a special In Memoriam that pays tribute to the late members of the 100 Greatest NHL Players. Ondrasik will perform during the In Memoriam tribute.” Click here for tickets.

-I joined Kings Road Talk Radio last night for a lengthy chat. Courtesy of the fine folks at LGK, the audio is below:

Check out our latest episode of @KingsRoadTalk with the @LAKingsInsider Jon Rosen! #LAKings #Kings #GKGhttps://t.co/9LZKWbxMZd

— LAKingsRoadTalkRadio (@KingsRoadTalk) January 20, 2017

-More to come throughout the day, including Sutter quotes, insight from Doughty and Kopitar, and, WiFi permitting, the most recent Black and White along with some interesting quotes from Peter Budaj on his background. Enjoy your Friday, Insiders. Let’s talk soon.