Sturm ready for practice, but not games yet

Marco Sturm will miss his fifth consecutive game with knee tendinitis, and will remain on injured reserve when the Kings play Minnesota tomorrow night, but Sturm was back on the ice for practice today. Before the All-Star break, the Kings considered whether to bring Sturm on the road trip or have him do rehab work in Los Angeles. Sturm is unlikely to play in any of the next three games, Terry Murray said, meaning that Sturm will still have another 10 days of skating and recovery time. Here were Sturm’s thoughts after today’s practice, followed by Murray’s thoughts…

STURM: “It’s nice to be back around the boys again. It was the first practice for today, and it went good. A little rusty, but now I’m just going to try to get back as soon as I can.”

Question: Have you been able to just let it rest, and recover that way?

STURM: “That was the plan. That’s why we kind of used the All-Star break for that. I’ve had it before, and it’s absolutely normal. The only way to let it heal is to rest, and that’s what I did. Now I have to catch up again.”

Question: When you say it’s normal, is that related to how much you played, coming back from the knee surgery?

STURM: “I talked to, not just the doctor here but a lot of people, and it’s absolutely normal. I came back right away and played a lot of games, so it’s a normal reaction. Obviously you don’t want to miss any games, but there’s nothing I can, and hopefully that’s it for the year.”

And here are Murray’s thoughts about Sturm joining the team on the road, and when Sturm might get back into a game…

MURRAY: “I think this is the right thing to do with him. We talked about it before the break, to have him as a part of the team and, most importantly, just continue with the conditioning part of it, the rehab, with Kinger [Chris Kingsley, and strength coach] Tim Adams on the off-ice part of the game. Now we can get him on the ice, get him skating, get him into game condition. The game part of it, we’ll probably get him into a game as we get back on the road, after our short break back home. We’ll hope everything just stays good and that he gets himself ready to go.”