On his 30th birthday, Matt Greene skated in the full practice with his LA Kings teammates earlier today. Perhaps as a slight nod to their inspirational leader, the whole D-unit wore green jerseys – usually not a color used by the defensemen, only forwards. Regardless, here’s what he had to share after coming off the ice…
On how his ‘non back-related’ injury is coming along and how he’s feeling:
“It’s a body injury. It’s getting better. The longer this goes, the better it is for me.”
On the possibility of playing Game 1 Tuesday night vs San Jose:
“I have no idea to tell you the truth. I’m on, I guess a day-by-day thing. Just talk to the doctors and trainers every day after skating, and just see what they say. Also, then ultimately it’s up to Darryl too. You know with the line-up that he’s going to go with.”
On if he’s personally ready to go:
“Yeah, it’s playoffs man. You gotta be ready to go. But again too, I gotta get cleared first.”
On being part of the group of players who got together for the Wings/Ducks game last night and how closely he was watching:
“Just watching it, keeping track. Checking it out more as a fan than anything else. Definitely not breaking down tape or anything.”
On if he was surprised at how flat the Ducks were in a Game 7:
“It’s tough, you know? Travel and back. Detroit played well. Detroit came out. They really…I mean it’s tough, you say some teams come out flat, and other teams come out heavy. Detroit took it to them really early. They got that early goal. That was kind of it.”
On if the Duck’s performance was a reminder to never take a period off:
“I was just hanging out watching it. I think Darryl does a good job of making sure (we don’t do that). I think everybody in here knows how important every period is of every game. So you don’t need any more motivation than that. I think they do a good job here of making sure that you’re motivated, and I think everybody in the room does a good job of getting themselves ready to go too.”
On who remembered that it was his birthday:
“At the party? Stollie set it up. Put on a little shin-dig.”
On if his hair (which appears to be longer than normal) is the playoff look:
“Sure, yup. I gotta wash it. Thin it out a little bit. (Well you are getting older now.) Yup, 30 man. Big three-oh.”
On if he sees San Jose as a different team now, given their roster changes:
“No, you look at their line-up, they shuffled around their bottom six a little bit. But at the same time, it’s still the same big, fast, skilled team. That’s what we’re preparing for and gotta be ready for.”
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I’m on the fence if I want to see Greener play. On the one hand, it’d be nice to have the A back – but at least he’s in the locker room, which is huge as it is. But on the other hand, he’s slower than usual, he’s not really in game shape and playoffs are entirely different animal than regular season and he was not on top of his game at the end of the season….
I just hope he gets well soon. I think that’s about all I can hope for.
Name is Greene, product of North Dakota Fighting Sioux where they “bleed green”.