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Alec Martinez Activated from IR; Who Sits?

Just announced, directly from the Los Angeles Kings:

“Defenseman,” of course, is Alec Martinez.

Martinez last played on February 7, 2015, against the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was there that this hit from Cedric Paquette

… led to what Darryl Sutter called “concussion-like symptoms that don’t appear to be very severe.” (This is a good time to remind you that there is no such thing as a minor concussion. It’s still a concussion.) Anyway, thanks to the able subsitutions of Jamie McBain and Andrej Sekera, the Kings’ defense has played really well without Martinez. This will allow Sutter to ease Martinez back in; if he’s not ready to go tomorrow, he won’t go.

If he is ready to go? I know that many commenters will suggest that a particular veteran ride the pine, while another subset will push for a certain elegantly eyebrowed gentleman, and the biggest hitter on the D is assuredly not locked in. Drew Doughty and Matt Greene, the only two right-shot defensemen, should be safe, and new acquisition Andrej Sekera is also playing the right and definitely isn’t seeing the bench any time soon. So that pretty much leaves the lefties.

And of those? It’s gotta be Brayden McNabb, right? Robyn Regehr has turned Drew Doughty (Drew Doughty!) into a below-average possession defenseman over the last few weeks, but he plays big minutes on the PK and has never been a completely healthy scratch in LA. As for Jake Muzzin, it appears he’s finally gotten past the point where he gets benched for mistakes, and there’s an excellent chance Martinez’s return will put him back on the top pair. In that situation, Regehr ends up with one of Martinez or Sekera, Greene ends up with the other.

The only other possibility is that Sutter keeps McNabb and Sekera together thanks to their stellar recent play; I imagine this keeps Regehr and Doughty together, and Martinez can swap in for either Muzzin or Greene. I think McNabb is definitely the first odd man out, but a bad game or two could see him return.

No word yet on whether Martinez will play tomorrow afternoon against the Vancouver Canucks.

Talking Points