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Kings’ Mitchell on knee: ‘It’s full speed ahead’

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By Sunday’s account to LA Kings Insider, defenseman Willie Mitchell shouldn’t be considered an X-factor heading into the 2013-14 season. The 36-year-old sounds good to go.

” ... Now I’m at a point where I don’t feel a thing on the ice,” Mitchell said. “Like I said, it wasn’t major pain, anyways, when I had my setback. It was more just dumping a lot of inflammation into the knee, and when the inflammation comes, then the pain comes. So I have none of that now, and because of that, it’s full speed ahead.”

Mitchell insists that “there’s no tiptoeing into this” and he considers everything “business as usual.”

As low as things seemed to dip in a totally scuttled 2013 season, the rock-solid blueliner said that it was by no means the worst he’s felt physically, noting his frightening concussion issues.

The cloudy nature of his knee problems seemed to cause some friction with outspoken GM Dean Lombardi and head coach Darryl Sutter, but Mitchell said that everyone’s same page again.

“I think at that point in time, maybe Dean didn’t understand the significance of what was going on, and even myself for that matter as far as the inflammation in my knee and all that,” Mitchell said. “So I think after I went in and went out and saw the doctors I did see and then having to go back and have another procedure after seeing those doctors, I think that gave him some significance to why I wasn’t able to be there and give him a little bit more understanding with that. And then, yeah, business as usual.”

If Mitchell is close to 100 percent next season, business could be awfully good.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins