Pearson: “I’m a hundred percent and ready to go”

The last we had seen of Tanner Pearson came during practices and morning skates of the frustrating home stretch of the 2014-15 season, when the rookie (by a technicality, not by his Cup ring) appeared to be on a prolonged verge of making his highly anticipated return to the Kings’ lineup after having suffered a broken lower fibula during a home shootout loss to Winnipeg on January 10.

After time ran out on Kings’ attempts to play into the spring, it became clear that Pearson, like Andrej Sekera, was right on the blurry cusp of being able to return for postseason hockey.

“Yeah, it was still kind of up in the air once the season was over,” he said. “But if I had to go, I would’ve gone for sure, there’s no question about it. I wanted to get back playing as soon as possible. There were obviously some situations that held me back from playing, but right now I’m a hundred percent and ready to go.”

And that’s music to Kings’ fans ears. Pearson, who was electric in earning a nod as the league’s October Rookie of the Month before being selected as one of six rookies to participate in the All-Star Game skills competition, has played in virtually no game situations over the last eight-plus months.

“It actually hasn’t been too bad,” he said. “I think yesterday with the scrimmage it was nice to get back at it and playing again, and it kind of eased me in for today. Practicing again and the full tempo is a new thing, because at the end of the year, it’s kind of a different tempo. Time’s winding down, guys aren’t going as long-type-of-thing. It was good to be back out there and be back with the guys, for sure.”

Tanner Pearson, on how his injury affected summer preparations and conditioning:
Once I started going full-go again, it was pretty normal for me. Once I was cleared a hundred percent, it was just skate, work out, and just kind of a normal summer after that.

Pearson, on what his line is looking to build on in 2015-16:
I think just consistency. I think we started off on fire last year, and it kind of dwindled down after we had that home stand. I think we want to keep it going the full year, hopefully, playing out here again, getting the consistency back and being a part of each other again will be good and help the chemistry out.

Pearson, on whether he’s in excellent shape, given his extra conditioning work:
Yeah, I think so. Working out for 10 months or whatever it’s been, it’s probably the longest summer I’ve worked out, ever. I think that was a big thing. Everyone was [going] along with the staff, and everyone into camp shape with the long summer and not making the playoffs, and I think everyone was coming into camp in shape and is ready to just get back at it and get it going as far as possible.

Pearson, on whether he has a goal to be used more regularly in penalty killing:
Yeah, I think playing special teams is kind of a privilege on this team. If you’re working hard, I think you’re going to be rewarded. I obviously want to play as much as possible every game. Hopefully I can start out strong.

Pearson, on whether he’s looking forward to three-on-three overtime:
Yeah, it’s obviously going to be different … you’re going to make a big play, or a small play can cost you. I think a lot of games are going to be ended in overtime instead of the shootout this year. [Reporter: Does it seem like a more natural way to bring a game to a concussion as opposed to going to the shootout?] I think sometimes, you look at us last year and how many times we were in the shootout and lost. The shootout’s kind of maybe a skills competition, whereas three-on-three is kind of game-like and you’re still competing and you know what’s going on.