Kings’ morning skate: Matt Greene out with upper-body injury, Drewiske and Harrold in, Clune a healthy scratch
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Ah, springtime in the Rockies, where Mother Nature dumped a foot of snow in the greater Denver area. The Kings’ plane had to circle Denver International Airport Tuesday night to dodge lightning and a snow storm that engulfed the area. The area received some flurries today and lots of slush.
Back to the ice. Defenseman Matt Greene, injured in the third period of the Kings’ 4-3 overtime victory over the Avalanche, will miss the rematch tonight at the Pepsi Center because of an upper-body injury. He was hurt when Colorado forward Darcy Tucker tripped him badly on an icing play. Greene said he hasn’t been healing as rapidly as he had hoped. Tucker was suspended for Wednesday’s game because of what the NHL called ‘excessive physical contact’ on the icing play.
It’s unclear if Greene will be able to return Thursday, when the Kings face the Blues at St. Louis.
‘I’m still a little sore. I’ll just see what happens with the training staff,’ he said. ‘Hopefully we get in a good day of treatment and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.’
Greene said he didn’t know the extent of the problem right away. ‘It was just like any other hit,’ he said. ‘You feel it for a little bit and hope it goes away. Some of the soreness didn’t go away and it just got worse overnight.’
Coach Terry Murray said Davis Drewiske will go in for the first time since Feb. 11 and that Peter Harrold will also be inserted into the lineup to play defense if needed but will initially play up front with Alexander Frolov and Jeff Halpern. Richard Clune will come out.
‘I don’t know how I’m going to get those paired up right now. I just got that information as we fnished our morning skate,’ Murray said. ‘With that on the back end, I really feel it’s important to get Peter Harrold in as a right winger/available to play defense if necessary.’
-- Helene Elliott in Denver