A big part of the Kings’ summer is the recovery of Anze Kopitar from his ankle surgery, and according to Dean Lombardi, that recovery is going well. Lombardi also addressed a couple “minor” issues involving two other players. One note…the reference to Alexander Frolov below — as some might remember — is regarding the persistent groin-muscle injuries that Frolov had during parts of his time with the Kings.
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Question: Is there any concern that Kopitar’s recovery might take longer than expected, anything like that?
LOMBARDI: “No. He was way ahead of schedule when he left here (for Slovenia). When he left here, he was already walking.”
Question: So he’s on track for training camp then…
LOMBARDI: “Yeah. He’s way ahead. Every indication is, he’s (good). And it’s like the basketball player, Blake Griffin, when he got hurt he used that time and worked out. What I noticed (with Kopitar) is that he was using that time to work out in the gym, working on his upper body. So when he left here, he had more definition than he ever had. Even though he had the ankle problem, he was in here every day, sometimes three hours a day. Obviously he was doing the ankle rehab, but a lot of it also was working on the parts of his body that he could train. He left here looking better than he did in training camp.
“(Justin) Williams, he too is way ahead of schedule. So he’s right on track, knock on wood. Quicker [Jonathan Quick] was back here for a minor check on something (near his hip). We learned from some of the stuff that happened with (Alexander) Frolov. If a guy has anything that is bothering him, we’re not waiting. Willie Mitchell had a slight problem with his shoulder. Same thing. We learned our lesson a little bit with Fro, when Fro was here. We weren’t aggressive enough in making sure that players come back here if they have anything wrong. A lot of times, players don’t want to tell you or whatever, because they think it’s nothing, and/or they don’t want to see a doctor and come back. But after that, if anything is going on, we get those guys back here. So Quicker was back here and Willie Mitchell was back but that’s OK now.”
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