Coach Demands Full Day’s Work, Even Day After

By Coach Larry Robinson’s reckoning, the Kings worked 20 minutes in St. Louis, or about 40 minutes shy of a game.

So he took those 40 minutes Tuesday in Detroit, holding a no-pucks practice that involved skating. And skating. And skating.

And, for a break, push-ups and sit-ups.

Punishment? You bet.

Conversation was brief and to the point.

“If you don’t work the night before, then you work the day after,” Robinson said, promising more of the same if efforts such as that in a 5-1 loss to the Blues on Monday night are repeated.

“As a player, you work about 1 1/2 hours a day,” he said. “If you are one of the top players, you work maybe 30 minutes in a game. That’s not much to ask for what an athlete’s being paid.”

The Kings are 0-1-1 in beginning a six-game trip that will go a long way toward determining whether they will continue play after the regular season ends April 18.

*

Rob Blake, nursing a sore groin and foot, went through half of the practice before being talked off the ice by Luc Robitaille.

“The last thing we need is for him to get hurt,” Robitaille said. “Remember when he got hurt the last time?”

That was when he suffered a broken foot, and then a three-game suspension. The Kings were 3-15 without Blake.

TONIGHT at Detroit

4:30 PST,

Fox Sports West

* Site--Joe Louis Arena.

* Radio--KRLA (1110).

* Records--Kings 21-32-5, Red Wings 31-23-5.

* Record vs. Red Wings--0-1.

* Update--Detroit is 6-0-1 in its last seven games. Igor Larionov has scored 10 points in the last eight games. The Red Wings were 17-16-2 until Dec. 31 but are 14-7-3 since, and are outscoring opponents, 67-48.