No clear indication of whether Regehr will play

There’s still no indication to whether Robyn Regehr, who was injured while attempting a hit on Devante Smith-Pelly in Game 1 of the Anaheim series and hasn’t played since, would re-enter the Kings lineup tonight. Regehr, who has been cleared to play for over a week, traveled throughout the Chicago series and took warm-ups in Game 7 but hasn’t yet seen game action.

“We’ll just do it as games go along, warmups go along, how guys feel,” Darryl Sutter said.

If he were to play, Regehr would likely draw in for Matt Greene, who has averaged 13:59 of ice time in the postseason. Regehr has averaged 17:11 of ice time, which could potentially help spread around the minutes two days after a double-overtime game in which left-handed defensemen Jake Muzzin (36:28), Willie Mitchell (34:14) and Alec Martinez (19:32) logged heavy minutes. Right-handed defenseman Drew Doughty logged a career high 41:41.

Still, there’s the issue that Regehr hasn’t played in over five weeks.

“Darn right it’s a consideration when you think about it,” Sutter said yesterday when asked if Regehr’s time away from live game action would be a factor in his decision.

As would be expected, the players weren’t concerning themselves with aspects that were out of their hands.

“Darryl is the coach. That’s not in any of our control,” Martinez said. “Obviously Robyn is a heck of a hockey player and he’s been awesome for us all year.”

Alec Martinez, on playing three consecutive overtime games:
I don’t know, I guess it’s just playoff hockey. Sometimes you have to do that. We always talk about it might take longer than 60 minutes. In this time of year there is no excuse. You just have to keep grinding away. Fortunately we’ve been on the positive side of those OTs.

Martinez, on New York’s first period success:
They’re a really good hockey club. They’ve got a lot of speed. There is no secret about that. They really come out of the gates hot. I think they know their strengths and they definitely utilize them. I think we’ve got to do a better job at having a better start and playing against that.

Martinez, on Henrik Lundqvist playing farther back in the crease:
He’s obviously one of the best goalies in the world. So I think you have to throw as much at him as you can. I think you’ve seen that out of both teams this series. You’ve got two of the best in the world and that’s what you have to do. You just have to throw pucks and try to get it in there as much as possible. As a D-man, I try to get it through at least past that first player and at least just get it to the net. Chances are you aren’t going to score from out there, but get an opportunity and get a rebound a second, third chance. That’s what we’re trying to do.

Martinez, on getting wins despite not holding a lead in the series:
I feel like a bit of a broken record, but I think we’re obviously not too happy with the process the last three games. Obviously we stuck with our game plan and we were able to come back in those games. But that’s not a good habit to be in, especially against a hockey club like the one against the building here. We’ve got to get out of the habit of doing that.