Brown Injures Ankle Again

First came the return.

Then came the re-injury.

Rookie right wing Dustin Brown returned Saturday against the Mighty Ducks after a 26-game injury layoff, but he was back in the trainer’s room Monday instead of the locker room.

Brown sat out the game against the Minnesota Wild because he aggravated his severely sprained left ankle against the Mighty Ducks. Brown had an assist on the Kings’ first goal in Saturday’s 4-2 victory.

“We’ll see how he is, and hopefully we don’t have to put him back on [injured reserve],” King Coach Andy Murray said. “Wouldn’t be right to go a couple of days without putting a guy on IR though, would it?”

The Kings have lost a league-leading 397 man-games to injury. Brown’s lineup spot was taken Monday by Jon Sim.

*

The Kings are practicing less because they are in “playoff mode,” Murray said. The team relied more on off-ice workouts last week and shortened day-of-game skates from 22 to 17 minutes in order to keep players fresh, a pattern that will continue.

“This is the playoffs and in the playoffs you don’t practice,” Murray said.

“That’s the way we’ve approached it right now. They’re getting their off-ice conditioning but we want everything we’ve got to be put into games.”

*

Defenseman Tomas Zizka was recalled Monday from Manchester (N.H.), giving the Kings seven defensemen on the roster. Zizka was scoreless in two games with the Kings in October and had six penalty minutes.