McKenna Has Sight Set on Playing

Left wing Steve McKenna has been cleared to play for the Kings tonight against Boston, which is the second piece of good news he has received lately.

The first was that he could see again.

McKenna took Ricard Persson’s stick across his eye Oct. 4 in St. Louis.

“I was lying down on the ice and I couldn’t see anything,” McKenna said. “I got up and opened my eye and it was black.”

And he was scared.

“Pulled muscles heal,” he said. “Twisted ankles, you can tape up. But you can’t play blind in one eye.”

Laser surgery repaired a torn retina, and McKenna was on the ice Monday and Tuesday with an addition to his helmet: a clear plastic face shield. Doctors have told him to keep it there until everything is healed.

He won’t wear it any longer than that, largely because of some sort of code under which the game’s fighters play without a mask.

Not that he isn’t thinking about it.

“The last couple of days, I’ve been skating with it and it fogs up and I take it off,” he says. “But then I think, ‘What if I get hit by a puck?’ It’s always in my head and I’ve got to play through it.”

Whether he will tonight is up to the King coaches, who are noncommittal on his participation.

“I want to play,” McKenna said. “Not just because it’s the home opener. I’ve been watching the games on television. I hate watching games on television.”

Tonight

vs. Boston, 7:30

Fox Sports West/ESPN2

* Site--Staples Center.

* Radio--KRLA (1110).

* Records--Kings 4-2-1, Bruins 0-5-3.

* Record vs. Bruins (1998-99)--2-0.

* Update--Boston is off to its worst start in 35 years, so predictably, there have been players-only meetings, coach-player meetings and captain-player meetings. What there hasn’t been is a contract for goalie Byron Dafoe, the former King who led the Bruins to the playoffs last season and who has cut back his demands to where he and the team were together on a contract, save for bonuses. Then they were apart again, as were the Bruins and Dmitri Khristich. Boston walked away from Khristich, another former King, when he won an off-season arbitration award that Boston General Manager Harry Sinden said was excessive. Now the Bruins are quietly saying they could use Khristich’s scoring. Boston is 0-2-1 on a Western swing.

* Tickets--Sold out.