Jokinen Sent to Springfield

The Kings’ lines are as set as they will be--”None of my lines are ever set in stone,” Coach Larry Robinson said--and on Saturday night in the opener at Edmonton rookie Josh Green will skate on a line centered by Yanic Perreault, with Luc Robitaille on the other wing.

Olli Jokinen, who has competed with Green for a job with the Kings, will center a line in Springfield, Mass., of the American Hockey League.

Jokinen, 19, was one of four players sent down Tuesday, when the Kings reduced their roster to 26. Two more players will have to go. Injured defensemen Mark Visheau and Jaroslav Modry are the probable candidates.

Injured center Eric Belanger will join Jokinen at Springfield, and Jason Morgan and Dan Bylsma were sent to the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the International Hockey League.

Forecast as the rookie most likely to succeed, Jokinen got time in eight of the nine exhibition games, with moments of good play. But an experiment with him as a winger faltered and Green--already a winger--stood out, going strong to the crease while Jokinen spent more time outside the fray.

“I think his true position is in the middle of the ice, so I’d like to get him [in Springfield] playing,” Robinson said. “He looks more comfortable at center, but that’s a tough position for us. We’ve got seven, eight centers.”

To make the Kings, Jokinen would have had to play on one of the first two lines. Jozef Stumpel, Vladimir Tsyplakov and Glen Murray make up the other top line.

“Basically, I’d much rather have [Jokinen] somewhere playing than do what we did with Donald [MacLean],” Robinson said, referring to a player who started with the Kings last season but was sent to the AHL after faltering. “We don’t want him losing valuable time when he could be down there playing every game, rather than sitting here and watching us play.”

*

The Kings are contracted to send eight players to Springfield and six to the Ice Dogs, but probably won’t have 14 uninjured players to send out. . . . Center Ian Laperriere, who has missed time because of an injured groin, says it will not keep him from playing Saturday.