Banged up Kings familiar with playing hurt in spring

Like any National Hockey League team playing past 82 games, the Los Angeles Kings are dealing with a collection of players managing varying levels of discomfort.

And, according to Darryl Sutter, it will simply remain a constant for as long as they’re in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“Are we going to get any better? No. Do we have to play through it? Yep,” Sutter said. “You know what? You can mentally tough your way through games now that maybe we wouldn’t subject them to in November and December.”

Keep in mind that the Kings dealt with injuries to high profile players one postseason ago. Dustin Brown tore his PCL in the San Jose series. Robyn Regehr underwent elbow surgery shortly after the playoffs concluded. Justin Williams (shoulder) and Drew Doughty (ankle) also played through injuries as the team advanced to the fifth game of the Western Conference Final.

Sutter obviously wasn’t about to divulge the level of discomfort weathered by Drew Doughty, who suffered an upper-body injury on April 3, nor was he wasn’t inclined to weigh the severity of injuries suffered in 2013 against those played through in 2014.

“No, no, no. I don’t even want to compare that,” he said. “But you know what? Pain’s part of it. There’s a difference between ‘injured’ and ‘hurt.’ You know what? Obviously, you’re talking about Drew. Drew’s a tough guy. He’s going to go out and play. That’s the way it works.”

In a moderately vague quote, Sutter also appeared to indicate that the level of injury sustained by any of his players was not enough to require off-season surgery, unlike the elbow issue that Regehr played through last year.

“I don’t like talking about that stuff, because that’s when something bad happens, but that’s not the case in any of our injuries, that’s for sure,” he said.