SAN JOSE -- Matt Greene will return to the lineup for the Los Angeles Kings in place of injured defenseman Willie Mitchell for Game 7 of their Western Conference First Round series Wednesday against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS2, PRIME, CSN-CA).
Mitchell was injured during Game 6 and did not skate Wednesday morning. It will be the first time any of the Kings' top-six defensemen miss a game in this series.
"Obviously [Mitchell] is not playing tonight," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "Hopefully there's a chance that if there's some sort of miracle that we can win tonight, maybe we'd get him back again this year."
Greene played in Game 2 of this series when the Kings dressed seven defensemen. Sutter said a couple of defensemen were ill so he decided to add another to the mix.
The Sharks won that game 7-2. Greene played 13:23 and was on the ice for four goals against.
Greene had two goals and six points in 38 games during the regular season. He was a regular for Los Angeles in 2012, playing in all 20 games during the Stanley Cup run. He played in nine of the Kings' 18 playoff games last season.
"It's always fun," Greene said. "It's always fun to play in a high-stakes game like this. I'm just going to try and help out."
The rest of the Kings lineup should remain the same as it has been for the past three games. When asked what the difference in the series has been since Game 3, Sutter replied, "6, 7, 4, 3, 0, 1," referencing the goals against for his club in chronological order.
Here are the projected lineups:
SHARKS
Joe Pavelski - Joe Thornton - Brent Burns
Patrick Marleau - Logan Couture - Matt Nieto
Tomas Hertl - James Sheppard - Tommy Wingels
Raffi Torres - Andrew Desjardins - Mike Brown
Scratched: Matt Tennyson, Marty Havlat, Bracken Kearns, Tyler Kennedy
Injured: Adam Burish (hand)
KINGS
Marian Gaborik - Anze Kopitar - Dustin Brown
Tanner Pearson - Jeff Carter - Tyler Toffoli
Dwight King - Jarret Stoll - Justin Williams
Kyle Clifford - Mike Richards - Trevor Lewis
Scratched: Jordan Nolan, Jeff Schultz
Injured: Willie Mitchell (lower body)
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