This Injury Thing’s a Pain

Adding injury to insult Sunday night, the Kings lost defenseman Doug Bodger for four to six weeks because of a broken left hand suffered when he stepped on a puck in the pregame warmup and fell to the ice.

Bodger tried to play but left with trainer Peter Demers at 6:08 of the first period.

“What is it, Murphy’s Law, is that it?” Coach Larry Robinson asked, laughing.

Among the many things going wrong for the Kings is a growing injury list that includes both regular goaltenders (Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr), two centers (Jozef Stumpel and Ian Laperriere) and two defensemen (Mark Visheau and Bodger).

Bodger’s injury leaves them with six available defensemen, meaning that a call-up is likely, with Long Beach’s Jan Nemecek or Jaroslav Modry the probable candidates.

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Newcomer Eric Lacroix started the game on a line with Nathan LaFayette and Steve McKenna, taking the place of winger Sandy Moger, who was scratched.

Later, Lacroix played on a line that included Russ Courtnall and Craig Johnson, then returned to the LaFayette line. He set up Johnson with a shot in the second period.

Lacroix came to the Kings from the Colorado Avalanche Thursday in a trade for Roman Vopat and a draft choice.