Here's Kings coach Darryl Sutter speaking at practice today, transcribed by LA Kings Insider and brought to our attention by Robert P. of Jewels From The Crown:

On whether he's happy with the team at the Thanksgiving evaluation point:

I don't go by U.S. Thanksgiving because the season started this year a week earlier. So if you look at it, when you break it all out, I don't look at it as 82. I look at it as 80, I look at it when you get to 20, I look at it when you get to 40. This year, 41 is actually the calendar year, which if you base it on 82, that's half a year. You know what? Tomorrow's 30 games. If we had 40 points, you'd double 60, that's 80. That means after 60 you've got 80. What you get in the last 22? You need a hundred to make the playoffs. There's no way around it. You know what? .600 hockey – it's not so much winning. It's the actual points that you accumulate. If it comes just to wins or regulation wins, then there are a lot of ties. And that could happen, but so what?


If you carefully go clause by clause, you can almost untangle Sutter's thought process. But by then you're a gibbering lunatic and you've eaten your calculator.