Kings’ Darryl Sutter has plenty on his mind

Three days off between games might represent a vast, numbing landscape, resulting in silence and awkward pauses between reporters and the coach.

Thankfully, the Kings are still coached by Darryl Sutter.

He declined to speak to the media after Monday night’s win against the St. Louis Blues. It’s a good guess Sutter was unhappy about the sloppy third period, but since then he has more than made up for the silence.

Sutter has talked about a long and winding list of topics: goalies, shootouts, the weather in Canada, defensemen Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin, and why he used forward Trevor Lewis in a shootout last month at Buffalo, among other things.

First, the last topic.

Shootouts have been a consistent theme after the Kings and goalie Martin Jones, who made his NHL debut, beat the Ducks in a nine-round shootout Tuesday night. The Kings have lost only two shootouts in seven attempts this season and one of them was at Buffalo on Nov. 12.

That was the game in which starter Jonathan Quick was injured near the end of overtime and was replaced by Ben Scrivens. Lewis, a Sutter favorite, was selected and did not score in the shootout, nor did Mike Richards.

It never really came up why Sutter used Lewis, who is now injured and hasn’t recorded a point in 23 games. On Friday, Sutter explained the move in Buffalo.

“I told him a couple of games ago, that if we got a shootout, he was going because of how good he’d been playing,” Sutter said. “He was sort of schleprockin ‘cause he hadn’t scored … and he’s got the one move.”

Only Sutter could manage to make fans of the Flintstones happy with that last quote. Schleprock was the downtrodden, put-upon cartoon character of that old TV show from the ‘60s. In other words, decades before Sutter’s players were born.

Despite the Kings’ success in shootouts, Sutter has not embraced the format. He didn’t like it before he joined the Kings, and his feelings haven’t changed.

“I’ve had elite goalies that weren’t very good in shootouts,” Sutter said. “They might go for four or five games and you would wonder, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Then pretty soon, nobody could score on them for a month.”

Sutter’s call to start Jones against Anaheim wasn’t a snap decision, although he did spring it on the youngster immediately after the St. Louis game.

“It was funny the way Darryl told him he was going to play,” Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi said. “He tapped him on the shoulder after we beat St. Louis. He was going by the bench and Darryl said, ‘Get ready for tomorrow.’ That’s the way he found out.”

The Kings were greatly impressed with the poise of rookie Jones.

“I was nervous for him,” Kings forward Justin Williams said. “But looking at him — when they were coming down and shooting at him and playing in the game — seemed to make me more calm. I went by him and said, ‘Good job,’ and he gave me a wink.”

SATURDAY NIGHT

VS. N.Y. ISLANDERS

When: 7:30.

On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 1150.

Etc.: The Kings will honor former defenseman Larry Murphy as part of their Legends Night series, so the puck drop will be at 7:46.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

Twitter: @reallisa