Regehr returning; Jones (IR) out through break

The Kings officially activated Robyn Regehr (hand) Monday afternoon and placed Martin Jones (back spasms) on injured reserve, retroactive to Wednesday, January 14. Regehr will be in the lineup when the Kings face the Calgary Flames in an important Pacific Division battle at Staples Center tonight (7:30 p.m. / FOX Sports West).

“I feel ready to rock,” Regehr said after this morning’s skate. Based on line rushes and defensive pairings, he’ll skate with Alec Martinez and should return to Los Angeles’ penalty kill, where he’ll be welcomed with open arms. The Kings have killed off only 10-of-18 power plays in January.

Regehr began shooting pucks last week and began taking contact over the weekend as he neared the end of his rehabilitation. As his return grew closer, he wanted to reinforce his strength “because I had to be immobilized in a cast for a little while, and then a splint,” he said.

“So I was just working at getting strength back as much as I could and also mobility, too. When you immobilize something for a little while it stiffens up and wasn’t moving quite the way it needed to.”

Jones, who began experiencing the back spasms after practice on Friday, will be ineligible to return prior to the All-Star Break, which means J.F. Berube will remain in uniform for games against Calgary tonight and in San Jose on Wednesday.

Earlier today, Jones used the term “day-to-day” when describing how close he was to returning to action.

“It was more of just a bad spasm initially,” Jones said. “It’s calmed down a lot and now it’s just to the point where it’s getting everything around it to – the muscles in the hips and the hamstrings – moving correctly and getting mobility back.”

Robyn Regehr, on whether he was fine taking contact in practice:
Yeah, we had practice, I don’t know how many days ago it was, that we did some one-on-one, down low stuff and three-on-three down low and all those kinds of drills that you just get to run into people and they run into you. It seemed to be OK.

Regehr, on whether he is anxious to get into a game:
Yeah, it’s been four-and-a-half weeks. It’s always exciting to get back in the lineup and also play against a former team, too.

Regehr, on the importance of the upcoming games against Calgary and San Jose:
They’re right there with us and also in our division. Pick whatever you want, but they’re huge games for us. We really need to do a good job tonight and that’s all we should be focusing on and we’ll deal with the next game after tonight. But we know how big they are and we want to go into the break on a positive note.

Martin Jones, on how he is feeling:
Good, it’s gotten better every day. So just day-to-day right now, I think.

Jones, on whether the back spasms originated in practice:
Just after practice, yeah. I just tweaked it a little bit. [Reporter: Lifting too many weights?] No, I can’t lift that many weights. So I doubt it.

Jones, on whether this is the first time he has experienced back spasms:
Yeah, to this extent. It’s the first time I’ve ever missed time with it.

Jones, on whether he has spent time playing Tanner Pearson in Call of Duty:
I’m not a big video gamer. That’s Tanner’s department.

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.