Tough Time for O’Donnell

The call came two days before New Year’s Day, when Sean O’Donnell was in Denver, a few hours before the Kings were to play the Colorado Avalanche.

Come home to Ottawa. It’s your dad.

O’Donnell made it to Canada as quickly as he could, but not before Emmitt was operated on for a brain aneurysm. Doctors said the operation was successful, but for the three days O’Donnell was in Ottawa, his father was unconscious. O’Donnell had to go back to work.

He rejoined the Kings in Dallas.

Sean O’Donnell took a side trip to see Emmitt last weekend, when the Kings were in Toronto, and this time dad could look him in the eye.

“Physically, he’s fine,” said O’Donnell on Thursday. “His short-term memory is a problem, but he knew who I was.”

It meant a lot to both of them.

O’Donnell played most of January with all of that nagging at him.

“I haven’t played all that well the last couple of weeks, but I think I’m enough of a professional to put that out of my mind when I’m on the ice,” he said.

“I’ve never had a close friend or family member die. I guess I’ve lived a kind of ‘glass’ existence. But this makes you think, and it makes you appreciate things.”

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Former King defenseman Steve Duchesne is alive and well in Detroit, and about to get richer.

Duchesne, whose four-year contract was bought out by the Kings last season for about $4.2 million in its first year, is negotiating for an extension to his one-year, $1-million-plus-bonus deal with the Red Wings. Two- and three-year contracts have been offered that will yield him an average of about $1.5 million a year, plus bonuses.

Duchesne had eight goals and 24 assists and was plus-18 on the plus/minus scale before Thursday.