Carter, Clifford, Nolan “day-to-day”

Darryl Sutter said this morning that Jeff Carter (foot), Kyle Clifford (upper body) and Jordan Nolan (undisclosed) – all of whom took the ice late into the team’s morning skate and remained on the ice with Colin Fraser and Martin Jones – are “day-to-day” in their attempts to rejoin the team due to injury.

The “day-to-day” designation could be somewhat ambiguous for Carter, who is attempting to return from a broken foot sustained late in Los Angeles’ 4-3 overtime victory over the San Jose Sharks on October 30. In his case, the fact that he has been able to return to the ice in a limited capacity represents a step forward in his progress, though a return at this point does not appear to be on the immediate horizon. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that it could be another three weeks before Carter is able to return, and while that estimation is still certainly viable, it does appear as though the Western Conference’s leading goal scorer from a season ago is gravitating towards the low-to-moderate end of the three-to-six week timetable referenced in the article.

Carter, 28, has nine points (5-4=9) in 14 games this season. The Kings are 6-1-1 in his absence.

Clifford sustained a head injury in a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on November 9, while Nolan’s injury is likely to have stemmed from a heavy open ice hit issued on New Jersey’s Peter Harrold in last Friday’s 2-0 Kings win.

I have been told that placing goaltender Jonathan Quick on long term injured reserve has been discussed as “an option,” one of several that could clear the way for more flexibility under the 64.3 million dollar salary cap.

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.