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MICHAEL CAULFIELD

LOS ANGELES - Game day differs here from practically anywhere else in the NHL. The visiting Toronto Maple Leafs conduct theirs at the Staples Centre, where they'll drop the puck at 7:30 p.m. local time tonight, 10:30 in the east. It'll be a late one kids. In my day, that would mean transistor radio on, listening to the game under the covers, at night, on low volume so mom and dad couldn't hear, and wondering about these exotic Los Angeles Kings and California Golden Seals, two of what local broadcaster Bob Miller calls The Second Six.

Meanwhile, the hometown Kings are skating here at the Toyota Sports Centre, a vast complex that includes - among other things - two sheets of indoor ice, along with the Los Angeles Lakers' training centre, home to Kobe and the rest.

It is just down from LAX and on Sunday afternoon, it was humming with activity - the Leafs centre stage on one sheet of ice, youth hockey being played on the other. The coaches on the bench looked familiar and a closer look confirmed - yup, that was Rob Blake, Nelson Emerson and Sidney Crosby's agent Pat Brisson, handling one team, with Mathieu Schneider coaching the other. It finished 2-2. Glen Murray's son was running around with Blake's kids afterwards, part of a colony of former NHLers that played some or most of their careers in southern California and stuck around to raise their families. It's no wonder that hockey is catching on here - and that teenagers from the area are starting to be drafted in the first round.

Blake, who is in the process of joining the NHL's front office in an advisory capacity, a la Brendan Shanahan, stuck around long enough to watch the Leafs practice and noted that earlier this year, his son's team opened the season by facing a squad coached by former Duck Scott Niedermayer, among others.

Blake is from Simcoe, Ont., grew up watching the Leafs, and noted that even in far away L.A., a visit by Toronto - no matter how good or how bad they may be at any given moment time - is treated as a special occasion.

For Leafs' coach Ron Wilson, these next few days represent a homecoming of sorts as well. He spent the first 296 games of his career coaching the Ducks and then after a lengthy stay with Washington, returned to northern California and spent six seasons with the San Jose Sharks, where he compiled a 206-122-57 record. San Jose is next on the schedule for Toronto after tonight's game; you wonder if Wilson remembers those days wistfully.

I remember when Wilson took the Leafs' job originally, hired by Cliff Fletcher. I was co-hosting Jeff Marek's Hockey Night In Canada radio show that day and I asked him about the peculiar demands of working in the Toronto market - and how in his previous 15 years he'd never quite come up against the sort of volume of media that he would face in Toronto. Wilson seemed assured that he could handle, and noted that he was generally forthcoming and accessible in all the years we'd had dealings, right? And it was true. But I reminded him that until playoffs, it usually came in much smaller increments and that in Toronto, it would be relentless, every day, every minute story line explored to death.

Example from yesterday: J.S. Giguere has been practising now for a few days and looks close to being ready. Wilson projected a Thursday start for Giguere in Phoenix, which means that James Reimer would be returning to the Toronto Marlies at that stage after doing a decent job as a fill-in. A small note in most markets, the logical step, one that anyone could see coming, but in Toronto - feature stories, a detailed examination of his tenure and its implications for the future, overkill. Giguere probably isn't coming back after this year if Reimer is deemed ready for prime time - and that'll be his sink or swim moment. But he's 22 - and giving a goalie the necessary time to develop properly is all part of the equation of getting it right.

Driving in, I was reminded of the Randy Newman's pop culture classic, I Love LA, because it WAS another perfect day. Weather: 62 F, and sunny. Leaf performance: Trending upwards, after two consecutive victories that featured 15 goals and a power play that's working for a change. Mood: Much improved as the season reaches its midpoint. Next up: two games in 48 hours against hungry, slumping Kings and Sharks teams. Let's see how long that continues.

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