Kings prepare for potential replay challenges

One of the new wrinkles this upcoming season will be the ability for coaches to make an in-game challenge in limited situations: goals scored on potential offside or goalie-interference plays.

Kings Coach Darryl Sutter and his staff are in the midst of sorting out the responsibilities and working through the scenarios. During a game, Kings goaltending coach Bill Ranford has the view from up high, in the pressbox, wearing a headset to communicate with the coaching staff on the bench.

“There’s times where Billy has the headset, but there’s some buildings that’s not quite as good as others,” Sutter said.

“At home we’re trying to run our cables so we can have iPad by where the sticks are ... so you can look at it quicker,” Sutter added of the replay. “We have two (video) guys full-time now. There’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve in it, and you’re not going to be always right.

“What’s interesting is going through with the league, how they see it. The goalie interference one is still going to be mainly handled by the officials and not very often I can see that being overturned because they still make the best call. I mean, there’s very few times they don’t make the right call.

“I think the one that is going to be challenged will be the off-side play, because there are more offsides than you think. And even from live coaching, when you look at the video, you go, ‘How in the hell did he miss that?’”

Sutter declined to say how often the headsets ‘failed’ to work in certain buildings. He joked, saying: “Spygate. Our technology is getting better. Who knows, maybe this year it’s 100%, instead of 90.”

He also got off another good line about making challenges.

“All of a sudden, my eyesight is not going to get better,” Sutter said.

Etc.

The Kings and Ducks meet Friday night at Honda Center and it could serve as a Vancouver Canucks family reunion if Sutter puts new defenseman Christian Ehrhoff in the lineup, and the Ducks decide to play center Ryan Kesler and their new defenseman Kevin Bieksa.

They were all together in Vancouver, most notably when the Canucks reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2011, losing to the Boston Bruins.

And now ...

“Right next door,” Ehrhoff said. “It’s definitely going to be a little awkward to see them on (another) team. But that’s part of the game nowadays. Only a few guys seem to stay on the same team for a whole career.”