Babych Might Not Be Retiring Type

The supposition was that defenseman Dave Babych would coast into town, stay on the Kings’ payroll for 12 games and then ease into retirement.

Suppose again.

“I’ve got to finish off strong this year,” said Babych, who came to the Kings on Tuesday from Philadelphia in the Steve Duchesne trade. “I’m certainly not thinking about stopping.”

Babych is 37 and was the second pick in the 1981 entry draft. To put that in perspective, King TV analyst Jim Fox was the 10th pick.

Babych will be a free agent after this season and said of the future: “I’d rather just stay here and see if I can fit in with this team.”

Babych was a healthy scratch Thursday, but Coach Larry Robinson--a Babych teammate on Team Canada in the World Championships in 1981--said he probably would play at Colorado on Sunday.

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It was only a morning skate, but Robinson wanted things taken much more seriously than they were, so he blew his whistle Thursday.

Then he blew his top.

“We couldn’t hit two passes in a row,” he said. “We’re not out of this thing. To me, it says something of a man when he fights to the death. I want to see my guys going hard to the last buzzer on the 18th of April.”

The Kings finish the regular season against St. Louis on that date.

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Luc Robitaille, Mattias Norstrom and Sean O’Donnell have played in all 71 Kings games this season. The last Kings to play in all 82 games were Rob Blake and Darryl Sydor in the 1993-94 season.