Palffy Enjoys Time in Playoff Race

Ziggy Palffy has no problem getting up for work in the morning. “It’s a great feeling,” he said of playing for a team in the Western Conference playoff race. “You know you’ve got something good going; you know that something good is going to happen.”

It’s a far cry from his work for his previous team, the New York Islanders.

By this time each season, Palffy could begin making plans for an April vacation, or to be at home in Slovakia.

The Stanley Cup playoffs were for teams that had found success.

“It was hard to go to practice, to go to games,” he said.

His reward now is games that he can approach with enthusiasm. His punishment is the pressure that mounts with each game.

“Yes, but this is the kind of pressure I want,” he said. “This is what I’ve been looking for.”

It was his quest when he came to the Kings in a June trade, and it remains his quest: to play in a game beyond the regular-season schedule.

He never has.

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Dave Taylor, the King senior vice president and general manager, joined the team in Edmonton on Monday night and will be with the Kings on Wednesday at Calgary before returning to Southern California to prepare for general managers’ meetings at La Quinta, which begin Monday.

With the March 14 trade deadline approaching, talk of swapping players will be on the agenda.

Taylor will be happy to talk to anybody who wants to give away a gritty winger or a goalie who can qualify for exposure in the expansion draft to stock teams in Minnesota and Columbus, Ohio.

Just don’t expect much in return.