Courtnall Feeling the Pain

Sitting, holding his crutches, Kings’ winger Russ Courtnall was talking Saturday about the view from the injured list.

It’s lousy.

“You look at [opponents] and their eyes get as big as saucers,” said Courtnall, three weeks into rehabilitation for a broken ankle, suffered when he stopped a puck with his boot at San Jose on Nov. 18.

“They want to take advantage of teams that are struggling like we are.”

And take advantage they do.

Courtnall is more seriously injured than first believed, and he is still unable to put weight on his ankle. He is expected to be out as long as eight weeks.

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Defenseman Rob Blake, also injured, was also around Saturday and said that he hopes for clearance to begin practice next week when he visits a doctor on Monday. “There hasn’t been any pain since I stopped using crutches,” said Blake. That was three weeks ago. Blake suffered a broken foot when he was hit by a puck on Oct. 30 against Tampa Bay.

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Eric Lacroix, pointless when he came over in trade from Colorado on Oct. 28, still doesn’t have a point in 14 games for the Kings. He had only 12 shots going into Saturday’s game with the Red Wings.