Calder on being back

By Matthew Kredell on November 27, 2007 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Kyle Calder returned Sunday after missing eight games with a broken thumb and scored a goal off a rebound despite playing with a cast under the glove on his left hand.

``I can't move the hand very much and sometimes it feels like the puck rolls off a bit,'' Calder said. ``That will come with time. I'm getting used to a different way to hold the stick.''

Where the injury can cause problems is in taking passes or battling for the puck against the boards.

``He's a tough guy,'' Crawford said. ``A lot of stuff he's good at the hand is not affected by, like his play in front of the net and his ability to get in on the forecheck and keep pucks alive.''

J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey. E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra
@inlandnewspapers.com.

Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.