Players on the Mend

DENVER —  While the Colorado Avalanche was at full strength for the first time since last May, the Kings played their most important game of the season Monday night without injured regulars Adam Deadmarsh and Philippe Boucher.

Deadmarsh, a top-line winger, sat out the last three games of the series after suffering a strained neck in the third period of Game 4 while diving head-first into the end boards trying to check Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote.

Boucher was sidelined when a shot by Darius Kasparaitis in the first period of Game 5 caromed off another player and struck him on his right cheek and eye, resulting in a possible concussion for the King defenseman.

“Just thinking about it,” Boucher said Monday from his home in Manhattan Beach, where he has spent most of the last four days resting in bed, “I still hear the noise that it made when it hit my face and I can almost feel the pain.”

He said his eye was fine but that he was suffering from headaches.

Like Boucher, Deadmarsh also stayed home. His neck was too stiff to allow him to play, Coach Andy Murray said, so the Kings left him behind.

“Could he play with it? Possibly,” Murray said before the game. “But the problem you have is, when he’s like that, his mobility is really limited and he’s open to getting hurt in other areas and we can’t afford to let that happen to him....

“These are important hockey games and we want all our best players in the lineup, but a person’s individual health is our first priority.”

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When Murray went out to dinner Sunday night with his assistants and other King personnel, he found a booster seat in his chair--a good-natured jab after Avalanche Coach Bob Hartley had dismissed Murray on Saturday, saying, “My parents always taught me not to waste time with 4-feet-6 guys.”

“It was just the guys teasing me,” Murray said. “Some of the players are calling me Shorty and stuff like that. I’ve had fun with it. I try not to take things too seriously....

“That’s what Bob’s parents taught him. My parents taught me to respect the game and respect your players and to have your own players respect the opponent. He was taught different things than I was.”

Said Hartley of the feud, “That’s part of the game. But today, where it’s such an important game, the focus has to be on the right things. We’re very fortunate we’re coaching some world-class athletes. That’s good stuff in between games.”

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Realizing how close they had come to eliminating the Avalanche, several King players said it was difficult to watch Hartley’s team go on to win the Stanley Cup last year, but Murray didn’t mind.

“It didn’t really make any difference,” he said. “I’ll be very honest with you: The most important games I watched after that were my kids’ games. I lost interest.”

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Cliff Ronning, who returned to the King lineup for Game 6 after sitting out two games because of concussion-like symptoms, was a late scratch from Game 7. Steve Kelly, who spent most of the season in the minors, replaced him.

Murray had hinted at the change earlier in the day.

“We’re thinking of adding a player to our lineup tonight to change the look of things a little bit,” he said. “It’s not related to an injury at all.”

Kelly, a 25-year-old forward, had no goals and one assist in eight regular-season games with the Kings, the last on Dec. 26.