Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles Kings Coach Darryl Sutter sees the need to utilize plenty of players in the upcoming abbreviated NHL season.

Sutter is the only current coach in the NHL who was a coach during the 48-game season in 1994-95.

"Everybody's talking about the importance of a good start, but the one thing that I take out of the 48-game schedule that year was how you needed lots of players. I bet if you look back at Chicago that year we probably used 16 or 17 forwards."

Camps are on track to start Sunday but the extensive fitness tests that players usually undergo on the first day might be condensed in order to get players onto the ice as soon as possible.

"To me it's not really training camp. It's more trying to get five good practices in," said Sutter.

His latest plan calls for a relatively small group of five lines, four defense pairs and two goaltenders.

"You're going to have an unbalanced schedule and there's so many things we don't know," he said.

Sutter's 1994-95 Chicago Blackhawks endured a 13-game winless streak and were 24-19-5 but still advanced to the conference finals, where they lost to Detroit.

Copyright © 2012 AHN - All Rights Reserved