Roenick, Conroy Meet the Team

Jeremy Roenick, fresh from his vacation in Italy, was gassed.

Luc Robitaille wasn’t, but pointed out, “I didn’t spend the last two weeks in Italy with wine, pasta and cheese like Jeremy.”

Craig Conroy was a bit bug-eyed, seeing Los Angeles as a King for the first time.

Now the enjoyable work begins. In some ways, the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season finally ended Tuesday, as training camps opened. The noise from an often-caustic labor squabble was replaced by the sound of blades on ice. A welcome change. Mostly.

“I’m sucking air right now,” Roenick said shortly after his first workout with the Kings. “It feels like I’ve had the year off.”

The Kings’ first day of camp was hardly a moment to pick up where they left off -- after all, they lost their last 11 games in the 2003-04 season. But it was a new start.

Conroy, whose play helped the Calgary Flames reach the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, signed a four-year, $12.6-million deal with the Kings soon after the Flames lost in seven games to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Yet he did not set foot in Southern California for a year.

“You lose Game 7, then sign a contract and can’t wait to get started, then nothing,” said Conroy. “That was the hardest thing, waiting to be with my new team. I was in limbo.”

Roenick was also seeing new teammates, after being acquired in an August trade with Philadelphia. He discovered the year off took a physical toll.

“It takes a little longer when you’re 35, 36,” said Roenick, who also said he has skated about 10 times in the last 18 months.

The aches and pains were a welcome substitute for a year of hand wringing.

“I’m just excited to be back,” Robitaille said. “It’s weird because it doesn’t feel like we missed a year, but we did. I just want to have a lot of fun.”

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Roenick, 35, was teamed with Alexander Frolov, and Michael Cammalleri, both 23, a line that Coach Andy Murray hopes to use this season.

“They are players who have a lot of energy and have a creative style,” Roenick said. “Hopefully, I can create some things for them.”

Cammalleri scored 109 points for Manchester and was the second-leading scorer in the American Hockey League last season. Murray said, “He has earned the right to be a top-line player and it’s his job to retain that right.”

Frolov has already accomplished that, having led the Kings with 24 goals in 2003-04. He scored 20 playing for Moscow Dynamo last season and considered staying in the Russian elite league, as Avangard Omsk offered more money than the Kings. But the lure of the NHL was too strong.

“I won a Russian league championship last year, now I want to win a Stanley Cup,” Frolov said.

Playing with Roenick, Frolov said, might help him get there.

“He’s the best player to be with,” Frolov said. “He’s always saying something out there, giving advice. He knows this game better than anybody.”

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The Kings named Roenick, Robitaille, Conroy and Aaron Miller alternate captains behind Mattias Norstrom, who has been the team’s captain since Rob Blake was traded in 2001.... Former King goaltender Roman Cechmanek has signed with Karlovy Vary of the Czech elite league.