Murray: Sturm seems ready to go

Barring any last-minute change of mind or heart, it appears as though Marco Sturm will get in his first NHL game since May 1 (when he suffered a major knee injury) tomorrow when the Kings play Colorado. After today’s practice, in which Sturm skated in a fourth-line role, Sturm said he would talk to coach Terry Murray tomorrow morning regarding the game. “I’ve got to talk to him and see what his plans are,” Sturm said. “We’ll see in the morning.”

Murray hasn’t exactly been ambiguous in terms of his plans. He would like to see Sturm play tomorrow, and is waiting for Sturm to say he’s good to go. Murray said that, on the ice today, Sturm did give him that indication.

MURRAY: “He did tell me, on the ice, that he’s feeling good, and that waiting another week, or two weeks, is not going to make any difference. I said, waiting one day or two days is not going to make a difference. It’s just a decision you have to make as a player, when you’re coming back from an injury, to convince yourself to step up and get yourself going.

“He kind of said he was, in a roundabout way, that he was ready to get in and get going. He kind of caught me off-guard, because when I talked to him a couple days ago, I said, `Let me know before a practice, so I can get you into a situation to get on a line and get your work in the day before.’ Another player that doesn’t listen very well, so… [laughs]”

Sturm acknowledged that his challenge, in terms of getting back to game action, isn’t really about his surgically-repaired knee very much…

STURM: “It’s all in the head, I guess. It’s all mental. As soon as have some games in me, I won’t even think about it. Hopefully have some goals too.”

Murray’s long-term plan remains to have Sturm as his first-line left winger, alongside Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, but Murray said Sturm will likely start out on the fourth line, with Brad Richardson filling that first-line spot for now.

MURRAY: “I know I talked about, before, putting (Sturm) up there with Kopi, but what I see, over the last couple days of practice, is that there’s still a little bit of reluctance to get in there and do what needs to be done in order to play on a line like that. So I think it’s the same scenario I had with Pavel Bure in Florida (after knee surgery). It was, `I don’t have a lot of high expectations in this game. Let’s just get started.’ I said, `I’ll give you six minutes of ice time here tomorrow night.’ It was right on the second, six minutes. But that’s what I would do with Marco now, after talking with him for several days, several different times. I think it’s just a matter of getting in, getting some shifts in and getting back into the game and getting a little flow in there, so that you’re preparing yourself to move up.”