NHL

Gaborik: No hard feelings

LOS ANGELES — Marian Gaborik insists there are no hard feelings.

When the Kings winger takes the ice on Wednesday at Staples Center in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, he will be facing a Rangers team he signed with as a free agent five years ago and which traded him away in April 2013.

“It’s not personal at all,” Gaborik said Tuesday. “It’s the finals, it’s my first time in the finals, and it’s not personal at all.

“Hockey is a business, and it’s going to be very interesting.”

Just three months ago Gaborik was in the midst of laboring through a disappointing, injury-plagued season with the Blue Jackets, having scored just six goals in 22 games. But then — a year after the Rangers sent him to Columbus in a deadline day deal along with a couple of minor leaguers for a package including Derick Brassard, Derek Dorsett and John Moore — the Blue Jackets shipped Gaborik to the Kings for forward Matt Frattin and a pair of draft picks in another deadline move.

The rest has been history. Gaborik, after scoring five goals in 19 regular-season games with the Kings, has taken off in the playoffs, scoring a playoff-leading 12 goals during the Kings’ run to the Cup finals, including the game-tying goal in the third period of the Kings’ 5-4 overtime win in Chicago in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.

“It’s been a roller coaster of a year,” Gaborik said with a smile. “Being in Columbus, having a couple injuries there and missing the Olympics and then being dealt to L.A. and playing in the finals … that scenario sounds a bit weird, but I’m obviously happy I’m here right now.”

The addition of Gaborik has helped the Kings — who gave up 2.05 goals per game during the season, the lowest total in the NHL — turn into an offensive force during the playoffs, where they’ve averaged a league-leading 3.48 goals per game.

“This is something [Kings coach Darryl Sutter] and I had talked about last summer,” Kings general manager Dean Lombardi said. “We were always a top defensive team. … You want to be able to do both, but you never want to lose that hallmark of what our success has been in being a good defensive team that’s hard to play against.

“It had to be a player that most importantly fit, that gave us an element, that was willing hopefully to buy into what it takes to play here. … We felt it was worth taking a shot at it.”

Gaborik — whose five-year, $37.5 million free-agent contract he signed with the Rangers in July 2009 expires at the end of these finals — said he is not thinking about his future during this run.

But the player he has been in Los Angeles is the one the Rangers saw for much of his tenure in New York, where he posted two 40-goal seasons during his three-plus years.

“[Gaborik] always competed,” Brian Boyle said. “He always bought into what the coach wanted him to do. He worked his butt off.

“He’s so impressive. He wants to win. He’s a guy we’re going to have to focus on.”

Though Gaborik doesn’t hold anything against the Rangers for dealing him away, he said it will be weird when he walks into the Garden for Game 3 next week for the first time as an opposing player since he was traded away last year.

“Going into the Garden, where I played for almost four years, that might be a little weird,” Gaborik said. “But as soon as I hit the ice it’s going to be all business, and like playing any other team.

“Everybody knows it’s going to hard. They have a very good team, a very balanced team, with [Henrik Lundqvist] and it’s going be a tough task.”