Defenseman Karalahti Returns to Face Panthers

Jere Karalahti knew the queries would come and was ready for them Thursday. When you work in a fishbowl, as a professional athlete does, your problems can be seen through the glass.

And he has problems.

He has always had problems.

“I’ve been through a lot of things in my life,” he said softly.

The latest was a bout with alcohol in Detroit on Saturday that caused him to sleep through most of a team meeting the next day and be scratched later that night. And caused him to be called back to Southern California to talk with people from the NHL Counseling Service.

“What we talked about was confidential,” he said. “But I think the last two days has helped me very much.”

In those two days, Karalahti passed yet another drug test, as he has almost weekly since the Kings signed him in the summer of 1999. Karalahti has a history of heroin problems that he has dealt with openly since coming to the NHL, because those problems are a matter of record. And they are not the problem now.

He was cleared to play Thursday night and was in the lineup against the Florida Panthers.

“We wanted to get him back in quickly,” Coach Andy Murray said. “It’s one of those things about you fall off a horse, you get right back on.”

There is no altruism here, as Florida’s Ray Whitney found out when his teeth were rattled by a Karalahti check in the opening period. Karalahti has played well defensively all season and scored his first goal Dec. 29 at Detroit. He was paired with Mathieu Schneider on Thursday.