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March 14 morning skate notes: Father Kopitar, Stoll out

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Good morning from El Segundo, where the Kings took part in a morning skate in advance of tonight’s game against the Nashville Predators. Amongst today’s developments:

-Congratulations to new father Anze Kopitar and the Kopitar family!

The baby girl was born last night, according to Darryl Sutter. When asked whether Kopitar will play tonight, Sutter responded, “We’ll see.” As noted by other reporters present at the morning skate, there’s a pretty good chance Kopitar should play.

UPDATE, 12:05 p.m., from LA Kings PR: Last night at 12:38 a.m., Anze Kopitar and his wife Ines gave birth to a 7 lb 2 oz little girl named Neza (NAY-za). This is their first child.

-Jarret Stoll, on the other hand, won’t play. “He didn’t skate yesterday and he didn’t skate today, so he’s probably not going to be available tonight,” said Sutter, who declined to provide specifics on the injury (though Dean Lombardi told Lisa Dillman that it was an “upper-body” injury). With Stoll out of the lineup, Andy Andreoff is expected to draw into the lineup tonight against Nashville.

-I’ll have more on this shortly, but Alec Martinez skated with the team for the first time since suffering “concussion-like symptoms” following a hit from Tampa Bay’s Cedric Paquette in Los Angeles’ 4-2 win at Tampa Bay on February 7. Martinez skated in Kopitar’s spot between Marian Gaborik and Trevor Lewis during line rush-type drills and said “I’d be a little worried if I were Kopi.” He won’t play tonight, but his full presence throughout the morning skate is a significant step forward in his recovery.

-With those adjustments, the line-type drills appeared to show Gaborik-[Kopitar]-Lewis, King-Carter-Toffoli, Clifford-Shore-Williams and Brown-Andreoff-Nolan.

-Tanner Pearson, who has been skating every other day in his attempt to recover from a broken lower fibula, took the ice for a brief skate after the team’s session.

-Lots more to come throughout the day in advance of tonight’s 7:00 p.m. start.

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