Martinez could miss more than one week

Alec Martinez skated for the second consecutive day, occupying the time slot in between the Kings’ morning skate and Slava Voynov’s on-ice instruction with John Stevens.

Martinez, who injured a pinky finger on a blocked shot during last Thursday’s loss to Dallas, underwent a surgical procedure the next morning that included some work done on his nailbed. It sounded painful, though it wasn’t the type of injury that was expected to sideline the defenseman for any extended length of time. In an email returned earlier this week, general manager Dean Lombardi said that he expected Martinez to miss a week of action.

Tonight’s game against Carolina will mark one week since Martinez’s finger was injured, and it doesn’t sound like his return to the lineup will take place in the immediate term.

Darryl Sutter, on whether the team is waiting to “find out” more on Martinez:
You know what? There’s nothing really to find out. We’ve just got to wait for the wound to heal, and that’s going to take some time so there’s no way of telling. It’s got to heal. He can’t take a step back by banging or anything like that. You know, I know Dean said a week, but…it’s got to heal. [Reporter: It takes its whole course of healing?] Yeah. They nearly cut his finger off. I don’t think I could play in a week. [Reporter: Not like Jose Canseco?] When you’re still walking around, holding your finger like that? I don’t think you’re going to be playing. That’s clear. You know your fingers do have a pulse in them, and it does hurt. And Marty’s tough. We’ve seen him play lots – not with little finger injuries, with big injuries. It’s painful. Put the glove in there and the sweat in there, you’ve got to be careful. Start losing ground on infection. We miss him. We miss him a lot, but he can’t play at 20 percent.