Return on Galley’s Mind

Defenseman Garry Galley spent part of New Year’s Eve on skates, working out with some of the Kings at Iceoplex, and afterward waited for the headache.

Not a severe one, but a headache, nonetheless, a reminder that the concussion he suffered at New Jersey on Dec. 14 was his fifth.

And that their effects are cumulative.

“It helps that they have been spread out,” he said. “My first was in ‘87, my fourth in ’97.”

His fifth has cost him five games and he is hopeful that those five will be all, that he can play when the Kings open the new year at Dallas and St. Louis.

“At this point of my career, every game is precious to me,” he said.

It’s why he played against the New York Rangers the night after being injured.

“Everybody wants to play,” Galley said. “We had lost [7-1] the night before, at New Jersey, and I wanted to help [avenge that]. But I knew after a couple of shifts that I wasn’t right.”

Missing the time is particularly distressing to Galley, 36 and in the last season of a three-year contract. If there is to be no extension, he would like it to be his choice. To that end, he spent last summer undergoing surgery for a sports hernia and going through a diet-and-conditioning program that had him in top shape.

“That’s frustrating,” he admitted of the return on his investment being short-circuited by the concussion. “But I can be ready for the ‘back 40’ [games] of this season.”

Only if everything checks out. The concussion reminders are annoying, and medical personnel are more cautious with head injuries than they were years ago. And then there is the sense that any blow can have future impact.

“I have to be able to go out there and get the first hit, take the first hit,” Galley said. “I have to be ready to play.”

*

Defenseman Kip Brennan, summoned from Lowell as a precaution because of Aki Berg’s injury, then left off the roster when it was determined that Berg could play Thursday night against Edmonton, was returned to the AHL team Friday.