March 9 practice notes

A friendly late morning to you from El Segundo. It’s time to blog.

Forward lines at this morning’s practice, grouped together by color-coded jerseys:

White: Gaborik-Kopitar-King
Blue: Lewis-Carter-Toffoli
Yellow: Clifford-Shore-Brown
Green: Nolan-Stoll-Andreoff-Williams

Notes:

-As you may have noticed, the lines have changed. I know we all like to make a big stink over how the personnel aligns, but lines change dozens of times each year. “I mean, everybody talks about these lines that are special and all that, but we have guys who haven’t scored guys for 10 games, or two in 20, things like that,” Darryl Sutter said. Related: the Kings didn’t score in 61 minutes and 44 seconds on Saturday.

-The team went through a predictably lengthy practice after a Sunday day off. There’s always the challenge of incorporating new players late in the season when the wear and grind of an 82-game schedule dictates additional rest and fewer lengthy on-ice sessions. Today’s practice was one of the first full length practices that Andrej Sekera was able to take part in since joining the team, so it should be of good benefit. Having spoken with those in hockey operations, I’ve gotten the sense that Sekera’s performances against Montreal and Pittsburgh – his first two home games – were his most comfortable and effective since joining the Kings.

-As the team packed up for the two-game trip to Colorado and Vancouver, Alec Martinez got dressed and headed onto the ice (where he was later joined by Daryl Evans). He took some turns and practiced his stickhandling but had not yet taken part in anything really strenuous at the time of this blog post. Martinez wore a red no-contact jersey when he took the ice; a red jersey also hung from Tanner Pearson’s stall in the dressing room.

-The silent auction for Luc Robitaille’s Legends Luncheon on Saturday raised $4,300 for the Kings Care Foundation. For those of you who joined us – and those of you who took part in the auction – here’s a thankful stick tap from the Kings family.