Rest of Ducks’ schedule is travel-free

The Ducks can store their luggage for a while.

After opening the regular season 5,500 miles away in London, the team will travel only a fraction of that distance in the last two weeks.

Four of the Ducks’ final five games are scheduled to be played at the Honda Center, while the lone road game is at Staples Center on April 5.

When asked the importance of staying close to home in the weeks leading up to the playoffs, veteran forward Teemu Selanne said it was “huge.”

“We don’t have to use any extra energy for traveling,” said Selanne, who has played in 21 games since returning from semiretirement.

Selanne said that doesn’t mean the Ducks can take it easy. Two of their remaining games are against the Kings, owners since mid-December of the worst record in the NHL, but they remain just as dangerous as any other opponent, if not more desperate.

“Obviously, they are fighting for their jobs,” Selanne said of the Kings. “That’s the best motivation you can really have.”

In their last meeting, just before the All-Star break and a day after the Ducks played a physical game against visiting Detroit, the Kings won, 3-1, at Staples Center. Selanne had not yet returned to the team but sensed his teammates were not focused.

“I think their minds were already on the All-Star break,” he said.

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Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere said the likelihood of his playing tonight against the visiting Kings was “doubtful” because of back spasms that kept him out of Friday’s loss to San Jose.

“My body seems to be aligning itself, but it’s taking a little while,” he said. “You’ve just got to be smart and look ahead and make sure that you don’t do anything that will hurt you now for the playoffs.”

Jonas Hiller was forced into a starting role because of the injury, and Jean-Sebastien Aubin was called up Saturday from the team’s AHL affiliate in Portland, Maine, as a backup. Aubin played for the Kings this season before he was sent down to their AHL affiliate in Manchester, N.H. He was traded to Anaheim at the Feb. 26 trade deadline.

Aubin is the first NHL player traded between the Ducks and Kings.

“I guess I’ll take it as an honor,” he said.

Aubin says he already has noticed a distinct difference between the two locker rooms. “It’s a veteran locker room, and they know what they’re doing,” Aubin said of the Ducks. “They’re a really hard, grinding team.

“In L.A. it was a bit different, more of a skill team, trying to play a grinding style.”

TONIGHT

vs. Kings, 7, FSN Prime Ticket

Site – Honda Center.

Radio – 830, 1150.

Records – Ducks 43-26-8, Kings 30-40-6.

Record vs. Kings – 4-2-0.

Update – The Ducks will pay tribute to Los Angeles SWAT officers Randal Simmons and James Veenstra during tonight’s game. Simmons was shot and killed and Veenstra seriously wounded Feb. 7 after a standoff with a gunman in Winnetka. Veenstra, a longtime Ducks fan, will drop the honorary first puck. He and about two dozen fellow SWAT officers will watch the game from a suite and meet with Ducks players after the game.

dan.arritt@latimes.com