Kings’ Ryan Smyth enjoys opportunity to get back in touch with his Alberta roots

Ryan Smyth was born in Alberta, spent 12 seasons playing in the provincial capital of Edmonton and still has a host of family members living there.

Clearly, he’s no stranger to the area.

Yet the trips home can be a whirlwind nonetheless.

“You just prepare yourself mentally for it. And physically,” said Smyth, the Kings’ leading goal scorer with 19 heading into Saturday night’s game against the Calgary Flames.

“It’s nice to see family and friends. We only come up here a couple of times a year. So it’s nice to catch up and see how everybody’s doing.”

And fans in Alberta like seeing Smyth again too. When his face appeared on the scoreboard during the playing of the national anthems before the Kings’ game against the Oilers on Wednesday night in Edmonton, the fans gave him a rousing ovation — a rare tribute for a visiting player.

“That’s obviously humbling and brings chills to my spine,” Smyth said. “I enjoyed some great memories over 12 years in Edmonton. And I feel like each one of those fans is part of my family.”

As for his actual family, they planned to attend both of the Kings’ games in Alberta. And while Kings Coach Terry Murray said homecomings can be distracting for younger players, a veteran such as Smyth has learned how to handle them.

“It’s a special feeling. You’re excited, you’re energized. The adrenalin’s pumping,” said Murray, who had similar experiences returning to his native Quebec during his playing career. “You want to play well for your family, for your friends.

“It’s just a very special game for you anytime you come back to play in those kinds of situations.”

Smyth certainly made his presence felt in the Kings’ win at Edmonton, perching himself in front of Oilers goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin and getting credit for tipping in two slap shots by Drew Doughty — earning a second ovation when he named the game’s No. 1 star.

A day later the scoring decisions were changed and Doughty got credit for the goals — correctly, according to Smyth, who said he did not touch the puck on either of the shots. But it’s likely that Khabibulin would have stopped both shots if Smyth had not been in his way, so his Kings teammates were willing to give him two assists even in the statistician was not.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to go to the places where the puck’s going to end up,” Smyth said. “And sometimes it’s goes off you and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Lately things have been going well for Smyth, who entered Saturday with 13 points in his last 17 games and was one score away from his third consecutive 20-goal season. So while the left winger, who turns 35 this month, isn’t exactly slowing with age, each trip back to Alberta allows him to reflect on where it all started, on a frozen pond in the scenic mountain resort of Banff, about 80 miles outside Calgary.

“I’m very blessed to come from there,” he said. “It was a great place to grow up. Hockey, skiing, hiking, biking. There’s a whole bunch of activities to do as a kid.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com