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Doughty (upper-body), Phaneuf (upper-body) leave Kings OT loss in Buffalo

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The LA Kings’ defensive group took a significant blow in a 4-3 overtime loss at Buffalo Tuesday as Drew Doughty suffered an upper-body and did not return for the second period, while Dion Phaneuf left the game after an awkward collision near the boards with the Sabres’ Evan Rodrigues and did not return. Per the Kings’ television broadcast, Phaneuf had temporarily left the bench after the second period collision, returned for a short period, and then ultimately left the game for good.

Following the game, Kings Head Coach Willie Desjardins did not have an update on the condition of either player.

Goaltender Cal Petersen, who made a career-high 43 saves behind a four-man defensive unit with Doughty and Phaneuf out, had the following to say about the loss of Doughty.

“It’s a huge loss. Not only is he a big-time hitter, he’s also one of the best defensemen in the game and he eats a lot of minutes so, like I said, I thought that was picked up extremely well by the other five guys and then the four guys, but losing him is a huge part of our game.”

Doughty was playing in his franchise-record 360th consecutive game on Tuesday. The last set of games that he missed was the final four games of the 2013-14 season.

After Tuesday’s overtime loss, Los Angeles has now lost 123 man-games to injury and, independent of the Doughty and Phaneuf injuries, are currently without goalie Jack Campbell (IR / knee surgery), forwards Jonny Brodzinski (IR / shoulder surgery), Trevor Lewis (IR / foot fracture), Carl Hagelin (IR / knee sprain) and Ilya Kovalchuk (IR / bursectomy) and defenseman Alec Martinez (upper-body).

Los Angeles has two games remaining on its four-game road trip: Thursday at Columbus and Saturday at Pittsburgh.

Bill Wippert/NHLI

–Lead photo via Bill Wippert/NHLI

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