Kings make game-day adjustments after ice melts at training facility

Kings Coach Darryl Sutter glanced at the less-than-optimal ice on Tuesday morning at the team’s training facility in El Segundo.

“It looks like ice, but it’s not ice,” Sutter said.

A long power outage at Toyota Sports Center, which started Monday afternoon, meant some game-day adjustments.

Although the power was restored on another unseasonably warm morning in El Segundo, the Kings, who play the Vancouver Canucks at 7:30 at Staples Center on Tuesday night, opted to skip their morning skate.

There was a reason.

“The power was out before we left yesterday,” Sutter said. “You need to have power to have ice. We probably could have skated. We’d like good ice for tomorrow [at practice]. It’s probably better they stay off it.”

Whenever there are issues with ice, joking comparisons are made with the old days at the Kings’ one-time practice rink in Culver City.

“At least this one is flat,” Sutter said.

After the talk about ice and weather, Sutter addressed other issues, touting minor-league goalie Patrik Bartosak, the adjustment period of defenseman Christian Ehrhoff (“I think he’s got to get up to the pace of the game”) and the challenges of finding a way to ease center Anze Kopitar’s workload.

“Kopi can play with anybody,” Sutter said. “Kopi’s just good. That’s it. When guys aren’t going with Kopi, then he’s doing all the work. He’s doing his own and the others’.”

Of late, Dustin Brown has been with Kopitar and Marian Gaborik and Gaborik has moved to back to left wing. In the first two games, Gaborik was on the right side and Milan Lucic was on the left, centered by Kopitar. It now appears to have been a short-lived experiment.

“Coaches pencil everything out, over and over, but until you see it you don’t know if it works,” Sutter said.

“Gabby hasn’t played a lot of right wing …. I think that it’s a big adjustment for Gabby going from left to right. It’s not easy. It’s like going from third base to second base. It’s such a different game.”

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