January 13 practice notes: Regehr, Toffoli, Pearson, etc

Notes from the Kings’ Tuesday practice in El Segundo:

-It was an optional practice. Those who took the ice and participated in drills included Clifford, Lewis, Regehr, Muzzin, Greene, Nolan, Andreoff, Shore, McBain, Schultz, McNabb, King, Jones and Quick.

-Tyler Toffoli also took the ice for 10 minutes towards the end of the skate. It was the first time he skated since being diagnosed with mono, per Darryl Sutter.

“He can get light exercise. It doesn’t matter if he’s skating or if he rides the bike, so we wanted him to skate…He feels good. He can’t have an enlarged spleen to play the game. Once that starts going down, then…we’ll ramp up his activity. Other than that, I couldn’t tell you anything. It’s good to see him out there. We saw it with Tanner and Tyler before the game last night. It’s good to see them both, quite honest,…in good spirits.”

-Robyn Regehr appears to be getting closer to a return, but there are still hurdles that remain.

“I’m working at getting there,” he said. “There have been a few things I was able to do this week. I got the OK from the doctor to really push it in practice and not have restrictions any more in practice. So I really started trying to shoot and I still need to make a lot of improvements in that area, but the final check is really going to be the contact down low, the hard physical play and things like that. It’s going to be the top hand on my stick and in order to check properly it has to be strong and it’s still not quite there.”

“I’ve skating for, man I don’t know how long, since the guys did the trip to Western Canada right after Christmas. So I’ve been skating for a while and really trying hard to keep the legs in decent condition. So I’ve really been able to go hard in that area and kind of wait for the hand to come along. But now that the hand is coming, now it’s time to push the envelope there. That’s what I’m doing, trying to be smart enough to go out there and not set yourself back a week or something like that. So just make small and incremental improvements.”

Given that it would appear that there is a natural progression to Regehr’s rehabilitation, Sutter offered a blunt reminder that the team is in a tight playoff race.

“I thought he’d be back by now. Too many guys out of the lineup,” Darryl Sutter said. “Every day is a lost day. ‘Right on track’ is not right on track. Every day is a lost day. We’re trying to make the playoffs now.”

–As noted in an earlier post, a clearer sense of the extent of Tanner Pearson’s absence will be learned soon. “Tanner will have his surgery today, and we’ll be able to tell you when and if he’ll play again this year,” Sutter said.

UPDATE, 1:20 PM:

Kings Rob Blake said, via text, that the Tanner Pearson surgery is going on now. Also said, "3 months rehab."

— lisa dillman (@reallisa) January 13, 2015

-Anze Kopitar showed no ill effects after being struck in the neck by a Dion Phaneuf shot last night. I’ll have a story on Kopitar up shortly, as well as Darryl Sutter quotes and other news related to the team. Stay tuned…