Passmore Settles Down and Pulls Out the Stops

Steve Passmore is hyper, and sitting and watching games isn’t the way for a hyper guy to get through life.

“I’m excited,” he said before his first start in goal for the Kings, earned because Jamie Storr missed a Friday morning meeting.

Excited, but not nervous. It isn’t in him.

“Hey,” he said, “it’s the same game we’ve been playing since we were 4-years-old.”

Back then, he was a skater, not a goalie.

“I was also the biggest guy on the ice,” he said, laughing.

Now he’s among the smallest, at 5 feet 9 and 165 pounds. He makes up for his lack of size with athleticism, throwing his body all over the ice.

“The L.A. fans will see something different tonight,” he said. “That’s just my personality.”

Passmore had a good training camp, but found himself backing up Storr after getting through the waiver draft and watching Stephane Fiset suffer an injury in an exhibition at the Arrowhead Pond.

“It’s hard,” Passmore said. “You want to help the team, and you don’t feel like you’re helping when you’re sitting and watching.”

Coach Andy Murray was noncommittal as to whether Passmore would earn a start Sunday against Phoenix, though he said he was leaning back to Storr.

“One man’s misfortune,” Murray said, “can be another man’s fortune.”

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Storr was two minutes late for a 10 a.m. meeting, then compounded the issue by staying in the trainer’s room until the meeting was finished.

“I didn’t want to interrupt,” he said.

But the 15-minute meeting was conducted while the players dressed for the morning skate, and when Storr entered the room, the rest of the Kings were heading out to the practice rink.

“I thought it was a 10:30 skate,” Storr said. “It was a dumb mistake. . . . I feel bad. I wanted to play tonight more than anyone, and I feel like I let my teammates down.”