After `scare,’ Fraser back and ready to play

Colin Fraser is a well-grounded guy, so he didn’t exactly need any forced perspective dropped into his life, but he got some anyway this week. On Tuesday afternoon, Fraser left Phoenix to fly to Red Deer, Alberta, to be with his wife and his 19-month-old son, Calder, who was ill. Calder had to be hospitalized for a couple days. Colin Fraser called the episode a “scare” but said all of his son’s tests turned out fine and that “everybody is healthy and I’m back and ready to play.” Fraser returned to his fourth-line center role in practice today. His absence had the full permission and support of coach Darryl Sutter and the Kings’ staff, and Fraser said it was a tough time but that he felt good about the way it turned out.

FRASER: “At first, I didn’t know what to do. I said, `Forget it, I’m going home.’ Obviously I want to play and I want to be here. This is obviously something special, but at the end of the day, family comes first, 100-percent, number one. Hockey is going to come and go, but my family I’ll have forever. It was a no-brainer for me. Obviously I want to play, but it’s something I don’t regret doing for one second. Even if I did play, my head wouldn’t have been in it and I would have been in la-la land, so I think it was better that Cliffy came in, and Cliffy did a great job.”

Because Fraser left Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon, he was in flight during Game 2. Fraser had his eyes on his cell phone at every possible moment…

FRASER: “Pretty much. Literally, it was the first thing I did, while we were on the descend. I cheated and I turned my phone on early, and I checked the score and it was four-nothing, so it was obviously a win-win. Everyone is healthy and the boys won, so I’ll take it.”