KINGS NOTEBOOK: LUC: ICE TIME EQUALS SUCCESS.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Writer

EL SEGUNDO - In his two seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, Luc Robitaille fulfilled a lifelong dream but endured nothing short of a professional nightmare.

Robitaille won his only Stanley Cup title with the Red Wings in 2001-02, but last season, Robitaille's ice time and offensive production plummeted to career lows.

``I'm not going to hide it; it was the hardest year of my life, of my career, mentally,'' said Robitaille, who averaged 12 minutes, 48 seconds a game and finished with 11 goals and 20 assists for a Detroit team that lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The Kings open the regular season Thursday at Detroit with Robitaille as a top-six forward, giving him a chance to show the Red Wings he still has something left.

In his last season with the Kings (2000-01), Robitaille averaged 18:42 of playing time and totaled 37 goals and 51 assists. In 2001-02, he played almost four fewer minutes a game and finished with 30 goals and 20 assists.

Robitaille is 37 years old, which no doubt has contributed to some of his decline, but he believes he received unfair criticism in Detroit for his lack of production.

``When we were winning the whole year,'' Robitaille said, ``nobody really looked at me, but when we lost in the playoffs, they all said, `Well, he didn't score, what happened?' But that's the way it goes. I don't place any blame, and this year, it's my own little comeback in my own way.

``If you want to score, you've got to get on the ice. You look at the guys who score the most goals, and they're usually the guys who get the most shots and the most ice time. It all goes together. But we had a good team, and it's just the way our team was set.''

In his previous stint with the Kings, Robitaille was not shy about expressing his desire for more ice time, and at least for a while, he will get it, on the second scoring line alongside Derek Armstrong and Trent Klatt. But Robitaille waited until he left Detroit to make his feelings known about last season.

``It's not worth doing that while you're playing,'' Robitaille said, ``because you want to be a team player. Everybody accepted the way they were treated in Detroit, and I accepted it, too. When you're winning, you can accept it. When you lose, you can't.''

--Ready to go: Coach Andy Murray named his 23-man opening-day roster Tuesday without surprises.

Injured players Jason Allison, Jared Aulin, Mike Cammalleri, Adam Deadmarsh, Aaron Miller and Brad Norton are not counted toward the 23. Maxim Kuznetsov is listed as ``suspended'' because of his trouble obtaining a visa and is still in Russia.

The Kings will carry 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders to start the season.

Rich Hammond, [phone]

rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com