The Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League, an affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, today signed Dan Cloutier to a professional tryout agreement. Cloutier is still on the books with the Kings, as $1.033 million of the buyout of his disastrous contract still counts on this season’s salary cap. Cloutier hasn’t played since two seasons ago with the Kings, when he…well, you know…

In other fomer-King news, Colorado’s Tom Preissing was supposed to be assigned to Lake Erie of the AHL today if he cleared waivers this morning. I presume he did, but I haven’t seen anything official on that.

Jonathan Quick has started 25 of the Kings’ 27 games, and he will get the call again tomorrow in Anaheim. Here’s what Terry Murray said today, putting Quick’s recent stretch into some context…

MURRAY: “This year, his game has been good. There were times, in games this year, that I think he’d like to have a couple of those goals back, but that’s part of the process of young players, young goaltenders in particular. The last couple of games…I thought he was outstanding. He was tremendous in the game at Vancouver and very big in our game against Chicago, a big part of our penalty killing against one of the premier teams. He made some big stops. I think playing lots is benefiting him. He’s really getting into a groove and into a zone where he’s feeling good about his game and it looks to me that he’s playing, right now, like he showed us last year at the end of the season.”

As a follow-up, Murray was asked about Quick’s style of play, and whether it can sometimes be maddening for a coach to watch a goalie play the type of aggressive, challenging style that Quick usually employs…

MURRAY: “Well, that’s Quicker’s game. He’s a very athletic, very mobile goaltender. He’s got great lateral movement. That’s the `catch’ situation that you get into. If you’re not out challenging, then you’ve got the shooters with these new composite sticks that can fire the puck so well. If you’re not in the right position on the angle, and challenging aggressively, then they can blow it by you. At the same time, you know that sometimes, if you’re not covering back-door, there’s that lateral pass that you have to make a great save on too, which he’s very capable of doing.

“I think that gets back to playing well in front of the goaltender though. We were talking about that at the beginning of last year, taking away or limiting those grade-A scoring chances. We’re getting to be a better team in that. We still have areas to improve, but it seems like lately, whenever we’re giving something up, Quicker has been right on the spot for us.”

Or should that be, new “e-quick-ment”? Never mind. Anyway, I got some questions after Jonathan Quick debuted new goalie gear for the game at Edmonton. Quick said it’s a routine swap and that he will typically go through three sets of goalie pads per season.

Quick’s new pads are a different look, but he said they’re the same specifications. You can check out what Quick’s new pads look like here. Thanks to reader Jake for finding the link.

Quick laughed when I asked if it was a coincidence that he played three consecutive strong games with his new gear. “Good timing, I guess,” he said.

Rob Scuderi is once again listed as “questionable” with his still-undisclosed lower-body injury. I pointed out to Terry Murray that after the injury took place, Murray insinuated it was possible that Scuderi would only miss one game. Now he’s at six games, and counting…

“Those things just linger, it seems,” Murray said of the still-undisclosed injury. “You want to make sure it’s 100 percent before getting back into the action. There’s nothing worse than a setback.”

Also, in much older injury news, I asked Drew Doughty about his front teeth, which were damaged in the Oct. 10 game against St. Louis when he got struck by an errant puck. Doughty said he’s still in danger of losing the teeth and requires more work, but hasn’t had time to get it done. Coincidentally enough, Doughty said he had a dental appointment today that he had to miss.

The Kings’ raw numbers on the power play over the last four games have been pretty brutal. They’re 0 for 13 with the man advantage, while opponents are 3 for 20. That’s a strong kill percentage, but the Kings aren’t drawing many power plays, and they’re not doing much with the ones they get. Here’s the last four games, in terms of power plays and shots…

vs. Chicago: 3 power plays, 3 shots on goal.
vs. Vancouver: 4 power plays, 4 shots on goal.
vs. Edmonton: 3 power plays, 4 shots on goal.
vs. Calgary: 3 power plays, 3 shots on goal.

Of course, not every power play is going to generate a lot of chances, but the Kings have had a couple problems: getting the puck in, and then getting it on net. Drew Doughty talked today about both issues…

Question: On the power play, what are you looking at in terms of areas of improvement?

DOUGHTY: “Just always shooting. I know one of our big things is shooting mentality, so we could get more shots. The more shots you get, it makes the other team back off, and when they do back off, they’ll be expecting a shot, and that opens up seams and opens things up down low. I think we’ve been struggling to get set up a couple times, too, and I think if we can get in quick and get a couple early shots, we can kind of set them back and get things opened up.”

Question: And that often starts in your own end, right?

DOUGHTY: “It starts with our entry. A couple times, we’ll go in and dump in the puck and we’re not getting the puck there, then the other team is getting it and clearing it down the whole ice again, and we’re having to regroup and regroup. I think that’s one of our killers so far. But when we do get set up, we’re doing the right things, but I think if we shoot more and more, it will work out for us.”

Question: Justin Williams talked the other day about getting some momentum on the power play, even if you don’t score. Are you in agreement with him there?

DOUGHTY: “Yeah, just getting the chances, even if you don’t capitalize. If you’re hitting the post or you’re getting a scramble in front of the net and the other team’s goalie has to make a big save, the guys on the bench are getting excited for the chance, and when they get out there for the next shift they know that the other team is kind of sitting back because we did have those chances. That’s our chance to jump on them and hopefully get a goal.”

Terry Murray said Rob Scuderi is still questionable with his lower-body injury. You might remember that initial estimates said Scuderi might not miss a game… Scuderi skated today, and Matt Greene returned as well. Ryan Smyth did another pre-practice skate, this time with Mark Hardy, that looked fairly intense.

More coming soon, including talk about the power play and Jonathan Quick’s play and his new equipment…

You can call him “Steven” or “Bugsy” — and I’m sure he’s heard too much of both — but no matter what you call him, it’s pretty clear that Brandon Segal is having a positive impat in his short stint with the Kings so far. Segal doesn’t have a point in his three games with the Kings so far, but he’s bringing some intense, gritty play on the fourth line.

Segal’s minutes, not surprisingly, are trending upward. He played 5 minutes, 29 seconds in his Kings debut Wednesday in Edmonton. The next night, in Vancouver, Segal played 6:34. In Saturday’s victory over Chicago, he played 8:20. Listed at 6-foot-2, 209 pounds, Segal plays strong but isn’t a liability. Here’s what Terry Murray said about Segal’s game so far…

MURRAY: “He’s better than what I thought he would be, quite honestly. He has played well. He has been here before. He’s been through Tampa and Anaheim and knows what it’s all about. Again, just to repeat what I have said, if he can just keep his mind set on, `This is what I am in this league, and this is how I need to contribute,’ and not think that he should be on a top line, then everything will work out really well. He’s got bulk, he’s got size, he’s got a good head on his shoulders, he makes the right decision with the puck and it allows me, on a pretty consistent basis, to have the confidence to play them later in the game.”

Terry Murray said Ryan Smyth was cleared last night to get back on the ice, so that’s why he skated today, a day ahead of schedule. Murray said he would like to see Smyth skate as much as possible but said Smyth wouldn’t be in a full-team practice any time soon. Smyth stayed on the ice this morning as his teammates skated to warm up, and he fed them pucks from the corner.

Matt Greene did not practice. Murray called it a “therapy day” and Greene is expected back tomorrow.

Rob Scuderi practiced again, although Murray stopped short of saying Scuderi would definitely play Tuesday.

Ryan Smyth, who had been scheduled to get on the ice Monday, is actually out right now in a yellow practice jersey, doing some light passing drills with Justin Williams.

Andrei Loktionov will have surgery to repair a torn capsule in his shoulder and will be out of action approximately four months, according to Dean Lombardi. It sounded as though Loktionov’s surgery and Thomas Hickey’s surgery will both take place relatively soon.