Alec Martinez suffered his upper-body injury during the first period of a 4-1 win at St. Louis on February 11. Upon returning home from that trip, Head Coach Darryl Sutter said “he’ll be at least a week. At least.” Martinez has been skating on his own but is yet to rejoin his teammates for official practices. He spoke briefly with reporters prior to heading out on the ice at Toyota Sports Center Thursday morning.
On how much longer he expects to be out:
“Hopefully not too much longer. I think it’s been, what, just over a week and a half now?”
On whether it’ll benefit him to get several practices in before playing in a game:
“Yeah. I mean, that’s kind of the case with any injury. You’ve got to be able to get some practice time in, not only from my own standpoint feeling comfortable. Obviously the coaches wane me to get some close-to-game like situations as they possibly can before I get back there. Like I said, I think I’m progressing the way they want me to, so hopefully I’ll be back soon.”
On watching the games on television:
“I watched every one of them on the road. Obviously, Chicago was a tough one. Edmonton and Calgary were good, especially [because] those are two tough road buildings to play in. To get two road wins out of that trip was pretty solid.”
On his encouragement over the young defensemen inheriting his minutes:
“For sure. They’re all really capable players. We’ve got a good hockey club and we’ve got a lot of depth. Over the course of the year stuff like this happens, and you need to be able to tap into that depth pool. I think that we are doing a good job now, and hopefully we can keep it going, especially into tomorrow.”
There’s a couple of videos of Alec skating today in my practice report if you haven’t seen them yet. There’s also some other fun drill videos including a great ‘shot’ by Drewiske.
There’s also photos of the new artwork on the walls at TSC, including one shot of the guys looking at their championship photo. I got really lucky with that one.
Jon, feel free to embed the video here too if you like. Or just use this link: http://kingsnewsdaily.com/martini-on-ice/
On a side-note, the Poker Tourney had a great turnout last night. I don’t think Jon was there since I didn’t see him but I did find it hilarious that a guy resembling Jon was facing Jim Fox head-to-head. Jim kept calling him ‘the insider.’ Jim and Lappy both had huge stacks but eventually succumbed to an all-in hand in the first round, along with myself.
I will also say it was a HUGE honor to be invited to the VIP media dinner. Eating filet mignon while talking hockey with the likes of McSorley, Nicholls and Fox was a great experience.
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kissmyblarneystones Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:00 pm
@Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com),
Fantastic site Paul!!
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Kingsfanone Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 5:14 pm
@Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com),
Wait……you have a website?
VIP media dinner, eh? Very nice, buddy!
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Forum Gold Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 6:18 pm
@Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com), With your dedication to this team and your endless amount of information to the fan base it would be a 5 minute major to whoever makes the list if you had been excluded. GO KINGS GO!!!
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Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com) Reply:
February 23rd, 2013 at 10:46 am
^ Thank you guys!
Also, Player-X kindly pointed out to me that the “insider” Fox was talking about was actually Rich Hammond! I missed that and just assumed it was Jon. My bad. I believe that same guy went on to win the tournament.
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Thanks Paul. Martinez looked awfully stiff there. Looks a ways off still.
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The Saddledom has been quiet the last two years. Not threatening to play in at all
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Duncanz Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 6:32 pm
@Perro, I remember that game at the end of last March when Kings put paid to their 2012 playoff hopes with a 3-0 whitewashing and that poor guy hurling his Flames sweater over the glass and onto the ice in disgust.
I could just about feel his pain. It’s been tough being a Calgary fan for about 24 years now.
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wrt Hickey..just cause he scored a goal yesterday doenst means he is going be a star…..Also WRT Hickey and Moeller the problem is we couldnt get any assets for them in a trade…Moeller is still our property I think…
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Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com) Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 3:29 pm
@Neil, He is. Until he’s 27, all roads to the NHL go through LA.
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luc20rules Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 10:35 pm
@Paul Armbruster (KingsNewsDaily.com), You just gave Craig Button a nervous tick.
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What the heck is going on with Mitchell? Can we get a Mitchell update? Or did I just miss it?
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JCarson17 Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 4:24 pm
@RobSD, I heard he’s still celebrating on top of that mountain in BC…
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Real 7 Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 6:43 pm
@RobSD, according to a poster here, Daryl Evans said that Mitchell is probably out for the rest of this season…
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luc20rules Reply:
February 22nd, 2013 at 10:38 pm
@Real 7, A last week he went on twitter saying he was working out and hopes to be back on the ice soon. Vague, but hardly something a player would say if he thought he was out for the year or even close to it.
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