Another Kings injury: Coach Darryl Sutter had double-hernia surgery

Add Kings Coach Darryl Sutter to the significant list of wounded Kings. Even he was fighting through an injury during the long-and-winding and grueling playoff run to the Western Conference Final.

Unlike his players, Sutter was hurt long before the shortened season started. He finally had double-hernia surgery after the Kings were eliminated by the Blackhawks, and, in fact, had it repaired, robotically. CBS TV, locally, reported last week on the Da Vinci robotic surgical system and Sutter’s recent procedure.

His boss, Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi, joked about Sutter’s legendary stubbornness. Apparently, Sutter was trying to set an example for his players.

Coaching in pain?

“You know what, I don’t want him to get any sympathy, at all,” Lombardi said, joking, on Sunday morning. “That stubborn whatever. Clearly, he was aware of this last year. And during the lockout he was told to have it taken care of and as we know, sometimes, it’s not going to go away.

“Not only did he do one of his finest coaching jobs this year, I can remember how many mornings where he would come in and he was in pain. But he wouldn’t let anybody know. I told him at that time, ‘You’ll get no sympathy from me, buddy.’ This could have been done back in November, but you just didn’t want to do it. So he was in a lot of pain there this week, but no sympathy.”

Lombardi was on a conference call with a handful of reporters discussing the major trade the team just completed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, sending goaltender Jonathan Bernier to the Maple Leafs for two players and a future draft pick.

It was unclear how Sutter suffered the injury.

“You talk about players playing injured ... this guy [Sutter] was injured and he was still playing every day and nobody knew. I remember sometimes he couldn’t get up. ...There’s your classic Western Canadian.”

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