from Lisa Dillman of the LA Times,

The Kings were unable to bring up a replacement from the minor leagues for the injured Anze Kopitar and will be forced to play one player short tonight against the Flyers, according to Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi.

They landed in this specific situation because of Kopitar’s injury, salary-cap issues and the fact that recently suspended defenseman Slava Voynov’s salary still counts against their cap total. Voynov was suspended indefinitely by the NHL last week after his arrest on suspicion of domestic violence and is still getting paid.

He has not been charged and has missed two games. Tonight will be the third one. The Kings are too close to the salary cap to recall a player and had been trying to bring up Jordan Weal from their minor-league affiliate in Manchester, N.H., and had been trying to craft a solution with the NHL and the NHLPA.

“It’s one thing for the player to have to pay the penalty,” Lombardi said in a interview with The Times. “It’s another thing for 19 other guys to have to go out there shorthanded tonight.”

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added 2:45pm, from Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider,

The news that the Kings could use only 19 players tonight apparently didn’t concern Anze Kopitar.

“I’m going to prepare like I’m going to play and we’ll see how I feel,” he said in regards to the upper-body injury he suffered in the second period of Sunday’s 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Given that the team is readying itself for game number nine out of 82, would it be safe to assume that the long-term needs trump any immediate personnel concerns?

“Yeah, probably, but I felt pretty good on the ice today,” Kopitar said. “So we’ll see about tonight.”

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