How Times Have Changed for the Kings : Game 7: They’re still playing hockey in late May and seem fresher and more relaxed than Maple Leafs.

In the early 1980s, when expectations for the Kings were considerably lower, the club was rewarded for merely reaching the lower level of the playoffs with a trip to Hawaii.

As the players lounged around on the beach, one player glanced at a newspaper, saw a story on the Stanley Cup finals, and announced with a snicker, “Look, there’s some stupes still playing hockey.”

Expectations are a lot higher these days.

Now it’s the Kings who are still playing hockey while all but two other clubs have gone to the beach or the golf course or some other vacation spot for recreation and rest.

But such a vacation spot couldn’t be farther from the Kings’ minds.

Although they’ve been playing hockey since September and are near the end of their third consecutive grueling playoff series, the players to a man seemed almost refreshed as they boarded their private jet Friday morning in Van Nuys.

“Fun” seemed to be the operative word as they headed to Toronto for tonight’s seventh game against the Maple Leafs in the Campbell Conference finals.

“There’s no pressure now,” said Wayne Gretzky, who scored the winning goal in Thursday night’s overtime victory. “Just fun.”

Goalie Kelly Hrudey echoed those sentiments.

Asked if he had doubts about Thursday night’s outcome after Toronto came up with two third-period goals to tie the score, Hrudey said, “I never have doubts. I’m indifferent to all thoughts.”

But not totally.

“The only time I showed any emotion,” Hrudey conceded, “was after the overtime loss in Toronto (in Game 5). That took longer than normal for me to get over. It was the next morning before it started to wear off.”

A key question heading into tonight’s game would seem to be whether the effects of a long season, a tough postseason and three cross-continent trips will wear off enough by game time for both teams to perform at peak efficiency.

For the Kings, the answer would seem to be more positive. Travel is as natural for them as lacing on skates. Isolated on the West Coast, they have long suffered through the worst travel schedule in the NHL, if not all of sports.

It’s a different matter for the Maple Leafs.

Toronto plays in a geographically small division--many of the Maple Leafs’ trips are short hops that would barely deserve notice on the Kings’ frequent flier chart. Toronto has had to chart a new course in this series, one far more vigorous than the team is accustomed to.

Additionally, some of the Maple Leafs are not used to traveling this far into the season. They failed to make the playoffs in three of the last four seasons and haven’t been past the first round since 1987.

Finally, this is Toronto’s third consecutive seven-game series. And each of the last two games have gone into overtime.

While “fun” seems to be the operative word for the Kings, “jet lag” are the words that keep cropping up in Maple Leaf conversations.

Toronto Coach Pat Burns talked about it after Thursday night’s game.

“We had a lot of sleeping bears tonight,” he said. “I’m tired myself. We’ve been in so many games, I’m emotionally tired.”