Battered Kings Face Season’s End in Game 4 : Hockey: Down 3-0, L.A. locker room resembles M*A*S*H unit for playoff game against Oilers. Hrudey plans to play.

In and out of the trainer’s room they trudge, heads shaking, bones aching.

These are the Kings, better known as Team Trauma.

It’s no longer Coach Tom Webster’s club. It belongs to Dr. Steve Lombardo, therapist Ann Robinson, trainer Pete Demers or anybody else who can read an X-ray, wrap a bandage or massage a muscle.

Most clubs down 3-0 in a best-of-seven series, as the Kings are to the Edmonton Oilers in the Smythe Division finals, talk about having their backs to the wall.

The Kings have their backs in therapy.

Ten players, half the roster, have injuries of some sort.

The latest casualty is right wing Tomas Sandstrom, who has a broken finger on his right hand.

He’ll try to play tonight when the Kings attempt to stave off elimination in Game 4 at the Forum.

As will Kelly Hrudey, who missed Game 3 with a stretched muscle in the rib area.

As will Wayne Gretzky, who took another blow to his injured back in Game 3.

Hrudey will be out there, even though he still has pain when he exhales, is sore and can’t move with his usual fluidity.

In other words, everything is pretty normal for this team these days.

“There are a lot of people who want to play who should be resting,” Webster said. “But they want to help us out of our predicament.”

Hrudey injured his ribs in the final game of the Calgary series when he was checked by Joe Nieuwendyk.

“I had started to feel better by the second game against Edmonton,” Hrudey said.

But in that game, the Kings found themselves at a five-on-three disadvantage, and Hrudey found himself leaning the wrong way against Jari Kurri.

“He tried to pass the puck, but it hit something and ricocheted back to him,” Hrudey said. “I tried to turn back, but I got caught with my legs going one way and my upper body the other.”

Hrudey finished the game, but was unable to return for Game 3. Instead, he had to sit and fidget while first Ron Scott, then Mario Gosselin attempted unsuccessfully to turn back the Oilers.

“You’re always more nervous when you’re watching,” Hrudey said. “There’s no outlet. You can’t release your energy.”

It’s a feeling Hrudey became all too familiar with this season when he spent several months battling an adult form of mononucleosis that left him weakened and exhausted much of the time.

“I’ve never had a season like this,” he said. “I’ve taken pride in the fact I’ve always been available for 80 games and the playoffs for six or seven seasons. This season, the only luck I’ve had is bad. It’s frustrating.”

That’s a word that was muttered lots at Monday’s practice.

It certainly describes Gretzky’s condition. After spending a month recuperating from a back injury that cost him the first two games of the playoffs, Gretzky appeared to have regained most of his flexibility and range of motion, only to suffer a blow in the same area Sunday night.

Checked from behind by Edmonton’s Steve Smith, Gretzky said he felt worse than at any time since suffering the initial injury March 22.

“He’s very sore,” Webster said. “But he will play.

“You have to give him a lot of credit. He’s playing hard and putting up with a lot of checking.”

Webster used Gretzky on every line Sunday night, trying to confuse Edmonton’s defense.

“I was trying to get him as much ice time as possible and keep (the Oilers) scrambling,” Webster said. “It’s working.”

And, Webster insisted, he’ll keep working Gretzky that way, back problem or no back problem.

“The only way his ice time will be limited is if he says he can’t play,” Webster said. “He loves to play. He loves these situations.”

Also hurting but skating will be Sandstrom, whose finger was broken at the end of Sunday’s game when he was slashed by Randy Gregg.

Angered by the injury and what he felt was unnecessary jockeying from Coach John Muckler and others on the Edmonton bench, Sandstrom was slapped with a spearing penalty and a game misconduct after time had expired.

“The only thing I speared was the boards,” Sandstrom said. “I just think once the game is over and you’re up 3-0, you should shut up. But I just lost it.”

Sandstrom won’t be the only one out there trying to wrap a swollen finger around a stick. Teammate Bob Kudelski also will return tonight with a broken finger.

He suffered his injury in the series-clinching victory against the Flames. Kudelski played in Game 1 of this series, but found it too difficult to control his stick. He hasn’t been back since.

That leaves six players unable to play: Tom Laidlaw, lower back injury; Tim Watters, ankle bruise; Dave Taylor, sore shoulder; Mike Allison, thigh injury; and Rob Blakle and Scott Bjugstad, strained knees.

Along with the missing players, Webster was thinking about missed opportunities in Sunday’s game.

“When you see those loose pucks and take chances it results in a lot of three-on-twos and two-on-ones,” he said. “But if you’re not able to finish them, you get caught. With their speed, it makes for a long way back.”

Neither Webster nor General Manager Rogie Vachon, whose combined experience in professional hockey spans more than three decades, could remember being associated with a playoff team as beaten up as this one.