Sutter: Martinez not close to returning because ‘they nearly cut his finger off’

L.A Kings head coach Darryl Sutter spoke about Kings defenceman Alec Martinez's broken pinky finger to the press on Thursday. Unfortunately the prognosis does not look good for Martinez as he is not close to returning to the lineup any time soon. “We’ve just got to wait for the wound to heal and that’s going to take some time. It’s got to heal,” Sutter said, per the L.A. Times. “They nearly cut his finger off. So I don’t think he can play in a week …. Your fingers do have a pulse in them and it does hurt. And Marty’s tough. We’ve seen him play lots, not with little-finger injuries but with big injuries. It’s painful. “Put the glove in there and sweat in there and you’ve got to be careful. You could start losing ground to an infection. We miss him a lot but he can’t play at 20 percent.” The Kings are unfortunately already thin on the blue line and will be forced to roll with a 6 man defensive unit.