Gaborik hoping to play “pretty soon”

Good afternoon from Interstate 10, where there’s heavy traffic heading west from the Phoenix airport towards Glendale.

Darryl Sutter informed reporters that Marian Gaborik was unlikely to travel to Arizona with the team for tomorrow’s game against the Coyotes. “Didn’t practice full today,” Sutter said. “He practiced but not where he’s pushing through it.”

Gaborik is improving in his attempt to return from an upper-body injury suffered late in the third period during last Tuesday’s game against Nashville. Gaborik played the following night in Minnesota but did not participate in the Kings’ two-game homestand against Chicago and Boston.

The injury – the third to cause the skilled forward to miss time since the start of training camp – is similar to the upper-body injury that caused him to miss eight games in October.

“Yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing but the other side,” he said. “I don’t know what the reason can be behind it. It’s just the way it is. It’s pretty much the same thing as the other side, two injuries on pretty much the same thing but both sides. I’m just trying to get it to a point where I can go out there and play. It should be pretty soon that I can go out there and play.”

Marian Gaborik, on whether he is frustrated by the injury:
Yeah, it’s frustrating. I just try to stay positive and get this resolved to the point where I can play and then just focus to keep going.

Gaborik, on when he suffered his injury:
It was in Nashville. [Reporter: You tried to push for it for a little bit.] It was late in the game at the end of the third period. Then I tried to play and just couldn’t.