Kings look for different Sturm this time

Marco Sturm is officially back in the Kings’ fold, as he was activated from injured reserve today. Sturm has four goals and four assists in 15 games with the Kings and will be back in the lineup for the first time since Jan. 18 in a first-line role with center Anze Kopitar and right winger Wayne Simmonds. Terry Murray indicated that Sturm might also get some power-play time. After this morning’s skate, I asked Terry Murray if there was anything the team and/or Sturm could do in order to help prevent another physical setback for Sturm. As you know, Sturm returned from his offseason knee surgery in late December, but then had to leave the lineup less than a month later because of knee tendinitis…

MURRAY: “There’s nothing I can do now. We’ve had a whole lot of people behind this whole thing, when you go back to the time that he came here, through the decision being made that everything was going to be OK, with the medical staff and the off-ice workouts with Tim (Adams, strength and conditioning coach). An incredible amount of people have put a big push on Marco to get himself where he is right now. He’s on a top line, he’s going to play important minutes for us, and now is his opportunity to really show us who he is, in every shift and every game. In the early part of it, we did not see the Marco Sturm that we expected, because of the physical conditioning side of it, and emotionally he hadn’t made the breakthrough yet.”

Question: Is power-play time possible for him?

MURRAY: “Probably so, yeah. Maybe even a little penalty kill here today. With Poni (Alexei Ponikarovsky) not being in the lineup, I need a PK guy. We did use him before, and he reads the plays well.”