Rested Saturday, third 82-game season a near-miss for Regehr

Defenseman Robyn Regehr had appeared in 82 games twice in his 14-season NHL career, and came within four games of adding a third season of perfect attendance to his resume before he was scratched for Saturday’s game in Vancouver. That he had battled through dings and discomfort in all 78 games is a remarkable run considering the rugged role he occupies, the shots he has blocked, and the battles in which he has engaged as a member of the Kings. There aren’t many better examples of players who play through pain.

“It would’ve been nice to play all the games, but Darryl just came to me in the morning skate in Vancouver and said that Soupy was going to go that night, and then I just had to go out and get my work in and do the skating and things like that,” he said. “But I had played all of them before, I think once, or something like that, in the career. There’s not much that is really on the line at that point, especially with the situation we’re in, not being able to move up and down.”

Regehr also played in 81 games with Calgary in 2009-10. Entering this week’s action, he has appeared in 1,021 NHL games.

That the Kings are playing in a back-to-back set on Wednesday and Thursday in Calgary and Edmonton, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a similar plan in games 80 and 81 of the 2013-14 season.

“Willie had the night off two nights before [Saturday] in San Jose, and then I think Darryl had just thought that it was nice to get a little rotation going,” Regehr said.

Robyn Regehr, on his responsibilities when not playing:
Usually we work out, and that’s what we did. We worked out during the first and second periods and watched it on TV. I don’t like really watching from up top too much because the game looks extremely easy and slow when you get that high up. It’s actually if I’m going to watch, I’d rather watch from ice level or something like that, because then you actually get to enjoy the speed of the game and see things a little bit differently there. If you want to see the big picture, though, being up top and seeing how the plays develop and that, there’s no better spot than that.

Regehr, on what he pays attention to when watching a game on television:
Sometimes if you decide to watch, zero in on another player on the team, you’re interested to see how they’re doing things. Sometimes you’ll just watch your whole team in general, and maybe your opponent, too. There are a lot of things you can kind of pick and choose. For me, I usually look in the situations that I’d be in. You’d look at the power play the other team is running, and how you’d try to defend against it, and then look at their top couple lines, what they’re doing, how they’re playing, what they’re trying in the offensive zone, on the forecheck, things like that, and try to put yourself in the situation where you’d be there facing it – what would you do to break that down.