Yesterday brought something a little unusual for the Kings during the early part of the season – a day off.
Since last Tuesday in Colorado, they had been playing games every-other day.
Before facing Nashville tomorrow night though, there was an extra break in the schedule.
Welcomed or not, at the very least it disrupted the pace of things.
So, as they prepare to ramp back up at practice this morning, several of the players noted what it already feels like to in the midst of a compressed schedule, playing 48-games in 99 days.
“You’re constantly going,” said center Anze Kopitar. “You’re focusing on the games, all the time really. It feels like the playoffs. You play and you have to be focused all the time. Every game matters and it’s fun.”
Goaltender Jonathan Quick, who has started all five games so far this season, tends to agree.
“I think it’s good for everyone,” remarked last year’s playoff MVP. “Just because with that much time off without playing games (during the lockout), you want to establish a good rhythm. So, I think we were able to do that over the past few games here. But, obviously, we’ve got work to do because it’s going to be a long season. We have to make sure to take care of ourselves (too).”
For rookie defenseman Jake Muzzin, he’s just happy to be in the NHL.
However, he’s already picked up on the give-and-take of playing too many games in a week.
“It’s good and it’s tough at the same time,” Muzzin said of the every-other day schedule. “You don’t have time to work on things in practice, and there are things that needs to be worked on. So, we just have to work on them in the games. It’s good though because you’re playing, you have a day off, then you’re playing. That’s kind of good for your emotions. You don’t want to get too high or too low because you know you have another game coming up very shortly.”
And that they do. Tomorrow night it will be the Kings vs. Predators from Staples Center at 7:30pm.
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