Familiar surroundings

Brayden Schenn, one of the final training-camp cuts last year, made it all the way to the end this time and will be on the opening-night roster. Coincidentally, if Schenn is in the lineup for Saturday’s season opener, he will play his second NHL game in the same arena where he played his first. Schenn made his NHL debut on Nov. 26, 2009, in Vancouver as an emergency call-up after Andrei Loktionov hurt his shoulder the previous night. There’s still a chance that Schenn will return to his junior team before he plays his 10th NHL game, but for now he’s an NHL center, and after practice today, Schenn talked about earning a spot…

SCHENN: “I’m just excited to be here for now. I know I have a lot of work to do, to stay here, but for now I’m excited and I just want to get better, day by day. That’s my focus. You can’t worry about the whole season. You just have to take it one day at a time and see how it goes.”

SCHENN: “There’s a lot of depth on the roster, obviously, and for now it’s just playing my game and doing what I do best, not trying to change anything. Even now, we’ve obviously got a lot of skill up front and hopefully I can keep getting better and learn from the older guys. That’s my focus. I look at Kopitar and the other centers and see what they do and just pick things up from their games. I can get better that way, just from watching those guys.”

Question: If you end up centering the fourth line, you might have a lot of muscle on either side of you, with Clifford and Westgarth. Is that something that might take time to adjust to, playing a role like that?

SCHENN: “Playing junior, I guess you play on the first line, power play, things like that. Here it’s obviously a little different, but I’m happy to play whatever role. I’m just not satisfied being here. I want to make an impact on the team, one way or another. Whatever they want me to do, I’ll try to do it. I’ll just take it day by day. If I get in the lineup or not, I’ll just try to get better day by day. That’s the focus.”