January 21 morning skate notes

Good afternoon from San Jose, where cages are still good things.

Lines!

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

-I was more preoccupied with following the forwards, so I didn’t catch the defensive pairings, though no changes are expected after Monday’s game. Expect the Muzzin-Doughty, Regehr-Martinez and McNabb-Greene pairings to remain intact. Jamie McBain and Andy Andreoff remained on the ice for extra work with J.F. Berube, so expect Quick to start and Andreoff to be the odd man out on Mike Richards’ line. The notable change: Dustin Brown is back up with Marian Gaborik and Anze Kopitar, meaning Justin Williams drops to Jarret Stoll’s line and flips Trevor Lewis over to the left side. Versatility!

-Jeff Schultz was not on the ice with the team as he’ll be heading back to Manchester on a loan, barring any last minute injuries. It’s not official yet, but expect that press release to drop pretty soon. Had he taken the ice with the team, it would have counted as a day of service, setting him over the top of the 30-day threshold in which a Manchester assignment would have required him to clear waivers. As it stands, Schultz will return to Manchester with nine games and 29 days of service under his belt.

-There will be some interesting Darryl Sutter comments later today that reference analytics and whether the Kings have been unlucky as of late. When we weren’t talking hockey, Darryl made sure to notify the press corps that the Kings, unlike their football counterparts, have not deflated their pucks. That joke actually led to a five minute discussion over whether pucks could be kept out of the refrigerator at ice level, and whether there is actually an off-ice official to make sure that pucks are properly frozen before they’re used in a game. This all took place while recorders were off, so you’ll have to take my word that there was a reference to baseballs being made in Haiti as an example that in some years, the ball really seems to be flying off the bat.

-As always, thank you for reading. There’s lots more to come.