Palffy Awaiting Test Results

The operative number was 80% as the Kings awaited results of a test Monday on winger Ziggy Palffy’s shoulder.

If the shoulder checked out at 80% of its former self, the grade wouldn’t be a C or even a B. As far as the Kings were concerned, it would rate an A, because 80% gets him off the exercise bike and back onto the ice as part of a regimen designed to get him into the lineup as quickly as possible.

Palffy suffered a sprained right shoulder two weeks ago when he was checked hard by the Mighty Ducks’ Vitaly Vishnevski, and Coach Andy Murray summoned everybody who dealt with training the Kings and asked for a full-ice press on rehabilitation.

“Ziggy’s really stepped up to the plate on this one,” trainer Pete Demers said. “He’s been coming in twice a day.”

Palffy, never fond of off-ice workouts, has gotten rehabilitation religion. The idea is for him to return quickly enough to make good on his oft-spoken wish to play in the playoffs, something he has never done.

Doctors had said he would be out two to four weeks because of the injury, a judgment Murray deemed conservative, and it remains to be seen whether the two or the four is the more accurate estimate.

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As far as numbers, 90 points remain Murray’s target for guaranteeing a playoff spot.

The Kings have 86 after Sunday’s victory at Atlanta gave them five of a possible six on a three-game trip, and the 86 are four more than the next closest team. Moreover, there are four teams at either 80 or 78, and they will be beating up on each other in the season’s final weeks.

“It’s fun to watch when the teams are behind you,” captain Rob Blake said. “But everybody still has something to play for. St. Louis [with the NHL’s best record] still wants home ice.”