The Bruins preach a patient approach and try not to look past the next game on their schedule, but the players could be forgiven if they had next Monday's meeting with the Kings in Los Angeles circled on their calendar.
That was supposed to be the first chance for the Bruins to face old friend Marco Sturm, who was traded to the Kings last month in a cap-clearing move. But that reunion will likely have to wait, as Sturm was placed on injured reserve on Thursday with knee tendonitis.
Sturm did not play for the Bruins this season as he rehabbed from right knee surgery to repair a torn ACL and MCL suffered in the opening game of last spring's second-round playoff series with Philadelphia. After an initial deal in mid-December was delayed over concerns with the knee, Sturm was finally traded to Los Angeles on Dec. 21 for future considerations, which Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli candidly admitted were actually "nothing" other than the much-needed cap space the move created.
According to Rich Hammond of the L.A. Kings Insider blog, the issue now with Sturm is with "the other knee, not the one most recently repaired surgically." Of course, Sturm has under gone major surgery on both of his knees in recent years, as he was limited to 19 games in 2008-09 after suffering an injury to his left knee that required ACL surgery.
Sturm, 32, had been playing well for the Kings, with 4-4-8 totals in 15 games. He had 106-87-193 totals in 302 games with Boston after arriving from San Jose as part of the return in the controversial Joe Thornton trade, and has 238-236-474 totals in 870 games overall in the NHL with seven 20-goal seasons.
Andrei Loktionov, 20, was recalled from the minors to replace Sturm on the Kings' roster.
