Part of team’s emotional pulse, Greene again in lineup

Matt Greene is a Los Angeles Kings alternate captain. Acquired along with Jarret Stoll in late June, 2008, the two players were the earliest players acquired by General Manager Dean Lombardi via trade who still remain on the roster. When he made his Kings debut on October 11, 2008, Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar and Stoll were his only teammates that remain with the club to this day.

As a member of the team’s leadership committee and a vocal presence within the walls that separate the team from those on the outside, the stalwart defenseman continued to have a strong presence even when he wasn’t among the 18 skaters selected by Darryl Sutter to suit up on many given nights late in the season. Greene, who has appeared in 353 regular season and 43 playoff games with the Kings, played in only seven regular season games after the Olympic break. He logged a minus-four rating in Game 2 but returned in Game 7 due to Willie Mitchell’s injury and was a plus-one in 12:43 of action.

“I’m sure he wasn’t happy that he didn’t play for a long time, but he was always ready to step in and he did in a big way towards the end of the season and these last couple games of the series,” Kopitar said. “He’s obviously a huge part. He knows it. Everybody knows it. It’s good for everybody right now.”

Though he was used as a seventh defenseman in Game 2, he slotted in comfortably with Alec Martinez in Game 7. The lefty-righty combination (Greene shoots righthanded) reprised a useful pairing from the 2012 Stanley Cup run, when the duo was paired together for all 20 Los Angeles playoff games.

They contributed a fine effort on Wednesday night.

“I don’t think we’re going to question the effort with Greener. His effort’s going to be there all the time,” Sutter said. “He’s got to probably do for us in this series what somebody like Bryan Allen does for the Ducks, when you look at it.”

As someone integral to the character and identity with this Kings team, those days in which he did not draw into the team’s lineup must have been an emotional challenge for the 6-foot-3, 234 pound stay-at-home defenseman. If it was, he didn’t show it.

For those with whom he shares the Kings’ dressing room, his presence on the ice and before games goes beyond any tally of games played.

“He’s the epitome of what you want in a teammate,” Brown said. “I think from a personal standpoint, he obviously wants to be in the lineup and it was a tough thing not to be in the lineup, I’m sure. But in saying that, he was in every warm up and I think a big part of that is because of what he brought to the locker room leading into games and going into warm-up and just the vocal presence he brings to our team and everything that entails.”

Though the team recalled Jeff Schultz from AHL-Manchester after Mitchell’s injury, Greene is once again expected to be paired with Alec Martinez for tonight’s Game 1 against Anaheim.