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Kings center Anze Kopitar avoids serious injury, set to play tonight

Kings center Anze Kopitar plans to play Thursday night after being hit by St. Louis Blues forward Ryan Reaves in a game Tuesday.

Kings center Anze Kopitar plans to play Thursday night after being hit by St. Louis Blues forward Ryan Reaves in a game Tuesday.

(Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)
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One question was answered Thursday morning: Kings center Anze Kopitar, injured two days ago in St. Louis, said he is “feeling good” and will play Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Another question may take more time: When will Kopitar’s linemates start producing?

Kopitar is expected to start the game with left wing Marian Gaborik and right wing Dustin Brown, who have combined for one goal. Gaborik scored on Oct. 18 against Colorado.

Referencing the scoring droughts, Kings Coach Darryl Sutter had some pointed words for the slumping Brown. The Kings captain has three assists, no points in his last three games and played a season-low 14 minutes and 33 seconds at St. Louis.

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“He hasn’t played very well lately,” Sutter said after Thursday’s morning skate. “He gets the opportunity to play with a special player [Kopitar] and he’s got to perform. We’re getting into regular-season performances, based not just this year, but over the last couple of seasons. Needs to be a better player.”

There had been some positive signs with Brown’s play in training camp and at the start of the regular season.

“That’s what we talked about. He had six months off, trained really hard and came in really good shape, getting lots of shots,” Sutter said. “We put him in power-play situations, penalty-killing situations to regain his 200-foot game. Showed a lot of confidence in him. Now he has to produce.”

The Kings managed to beat St. Louis without Kopitar for the second and third periods because of a hit from Blues forward Ryan Reaves. Reaves was fined a little more than $3,000 by the NHL’s department of Player Safety on Wednesday.

“I’m feeling good, and I’ll be playing tonight,” Kopitar said. “Obviously not the best feeling. I’m lucky that it hasn’t happened to me before. Maybe that’s why [there is] a little bigger concern because you don’t know what you’re dealing with. But went through all the [concussion] protocol, as you call it. I feel good, and the tests are good.”

Reaves hit Kopitar on the right side of his head.

“You guys saw it on the replay. It was pretty noticeable,” Kopitar said. “It happened quick. I’d like to think he didn’t do it on purpose, obviously. But it is what it is now, and the bottom line is that I’m feeling good now.”

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The Kings were off the ice Wednesday. And although Kopitar said he started feeling better fairly soon, they proceeded cautiously.

“I was feeling better shortly after the game, not right after. I could feel the progression going better,” he said. “The symptoms calmed down, and yesterday morning when I woke up, I just felt normal. No headache. No pressure. No nothing.

“The other thing is I rode the bike for a little bit yesterday, too, and everything was good after that. I had a pretty good idea that everything’s back to normal, but obviously with stuff like this you want to take the longer road and really be cautious about it.”

Now, there’s the matter of getting his first assist of the season. Kopitar has four goals and six penalty minutes.

“It hasn’t happened too often where I have more penalty minutes than assists. I’ll try to correct that as soon as I can,” he said.

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